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When 20-year-old Alexander Abarca Ayala found out he was being deported to El Salvador just six weeks before his graduation from Laurel High School, he did not put up a fight. Instead, Ayala visited his individual teachers to say goodbye and hand in his textbooks.

But Marjorie McCoy, one of the school's English for Speakers of Other Languages teachers, was not as accepting.

"He said ‘goodbye,'" McCoy recalled. "I said, ‘I'm not gonna say that. I'll say, see you later.'"

Ayala was one of 325 graduates to receive diplomas from Laurel High School on June 4. Like the other graduates, Ayala's accomplishment marked an adolescent milestone and the culmination of four years of hard work.

But his walk across the stage was also a victory for the teachers and administrators at Laurel High School who had never succeeded in delaying a student deportation — until now.

Assistant Principal Cathy Strine-Adams said two or three Laurel High students are deported in an average school year. Sometimes the students just disappear, and their teachers don't find out what happened to them until after they are gone. Often, as in Ayala's case, the teachers rally around the students, pointing them to social agencies and pro-bono attorneys who can fight on their behalf.

"But they've never met any success," Strine-Adams said. "This is our first success."

After Ayala's "goodbye" visit earlier this spring, McCoy took action. She and the school's other ESOL teachers wrote letters in support of Ayala and sent them to local legislators, U.S. Rep. Steny H. Hoyer (D-Dist. 5) of Mechanicsville and President Barack Obama. McCoy said she isn't sure what action, if any, the elected officials took, but Ayala's lawyer called him April 28 — the day of his flight back to El Salvador — to say that his deportation would be delayed six months.

Stephanie Lundberg, a spokeswoman for Hoyer's office, confirmed the congressman was notified of Ayala's request and "subsequently made routine inquiry with the appropriate federal agency." Lundberg said privacy concerns prevented her from providing any additional information about the case.

Ayala came to the United States in 2006, shortly after his mother died from a sudden illness. Some of his older siblings were living in Maryland, so he decided to join them. Four years later, Ayala's status as an illegal immigrant prompted immigration officials to order his deportation. Ayala said he found a lawyer to help him fight the deportation, but because his siblings have only worker's permits — not visas — his chances of remaining in the U.S. are slim.

When Ayala, who dropped out of school in the sixth grade because there was no high school in his hometown, began attending Laurel High School as a ninth-grader, he spoke no English and was placed in level one of the school's ESOL program. Ayala said the extra help from the Spanish-speaking teachers is what kept him from dropping out.

"That's why I kept coming to school every day," he said.

The language barrier was not Ayala's only challenge. He has also worked full time during his entire school career to help support his family, a common scenario for many of Laurel High's ESOL students, Strine-Adams said. As a result of the struggle to balance school and work, she said, about half of the students who begin school at the ESOL 1 level — the level that recent immigrants typically fall into — never make it to graduation.

But McCoy said Ayala not only managed to stay in school, he succeeded in a way that many students do not. In his four years at Laurel High, Ayala always completed his homework on time and never had any discipline problems. He discovered an interest in drawing and painting, and has helped complete indoor murals in some of the school's classrooms.

Ayala said he wants to continue fighting his deportation, and would like to pursue a career in criminal justice or law enforcement.

"If I can stay, I would like to go to a police academy, but I don't know what's going to happen," he said.

If Ayala does return to El Salvador, Strine-Adams said the teachers and administrators who advocated on his behalf are hoping his high school diploma will be his ticket to a satisfying job and better life in his native country.

But for McCoy, a 40-year teaching veteran who has worked at Laurel High for six years, making sure Ayala graduated was all about finishing what she and the other ESOL teachers started.

"We follow our students all the way through," she said.