Brittany Barber, Reporter
@barbercourant
In the beginning of April, the entire NCHS community was saddened by the loss of English teacher Kelly Devine. However, all students and teachers have come together during this difficult time in order to help each other recover in a variety of ways.
Within hours of receiving the news during April break, various social media sources filled up with numerous posts and comments about the loss of a very special teacher, family member, and friend. For students like junior Maria Fagerstal, the loss of Ms. Devine was a complete shock, so she felt that a Facebook post was the least she could do to commemorate her. “I wrote a small tribute to her on Facebook because I wanted the ‘Facebook community’ to be aware of how Ms. Devine impacted the lives of the people she touched. With the insurgence of other Facebook posts in tribute to her, I felt like the community was coming together to mourn the loss of someone very special,” she said.
When NCHS students returned from spring break on April 18th, Ms. Devine’s absence was noticeable throughout the halls. Before first period, the administration decided to have “connections” before regular classes met. Within these classes, students discussed appropriate ways to help people who are struggling with the loss of Ms. Devine.
Instead of talking about what happened, teachers guided students through the “do’s and dont’s” of helping others through tough times, by providing a place for students to share their feelings. This lifted student’s’ sprits, and made the transition to a normal schedule easier.
When planning this, Principal Bill Egan wanted to make sure the NCHS community had a support system coming back to school. “It pained me to write an email about losing a staff member, or anyone, but for me, I wanted to make sure that when we came back to school, students and families knew that we were here for them, and that they could come back to a stable environment,” Mr. Egan said.
Mr. Egan feels that even though he did not know Ms. Devine very well on a personal level, seeing her everyday and hearing the positive comments students had to say about her truly shows what an incredible person she was. “One of the best compliments that I received from a student was that, ‘she was the first teacher to make me feel smart,’ and to me, that’s the best compliment a teacher could get,” Mr. Egan said.
While administration was supportive during this time, students in the NCHS community themselves stepped up to raise awareness and provide extra support for their classmates. As a way to remember Ms. Devine, seniors Chase Jansen and Ben Wells produced a video for NCTV, which included numerous interviews of various friends and students of Ms. Devine. The video played during Friday’s live TV announcements for the entire school to view. “Since Ms. Devine was such a caring, loving and intelligent teacher, we wanted to honor her in a way the entire school could see,” Chase said.
Ben also feels that the video was a way for students to see what an unbelievable person the entire community lost, but that we are all here for each other. “I think this video helps with the loss of Ms. Devine because it helps the people closest to her get closure by letting them say what she meant to them,” Ben said.
Chase believes that the video created a sense of school community, in the way that it brought everyone together to appreciate Ms. Devine’s life. “I really liked when the students got to speak about what Ms. Devine meant to them, because even though they were all in different friend groups, they were all personally touched by Ms. Devine,” Chase said. “It showed how she changed everyone’s life, regardless of who they are as a person.”
Senior Katie Cowell was also a big part of the video, as she lead the project with junior Chiara Rapuano. “Kelly was a real role-model and mentor to me because I felt that she had done so much for me in swimming and life in general,” Katie said. “I wouldn’t have gone this far in the sport without her. The video was honestly the least I could do for her.”
Katie Cowell will be going to Oakland University in the fall for swimming, but she owes her success to her former coach, Ms. Devine. “I’ve had Kelly as a swim coach since I was eight years old,” Katie said. “She has been the head coach at the Shore and Country Club for years, and that’s where I first started swimming in the summer. She has been there through every step of the way of my swimming career.”
In addition to the NCHS community, members of Saxe Middle School are also learning to cope with the loss of Kelly Devine, as she was a teacher at Saxe for 12 years. Eighth grade history teacher, Jennifer Baltz, who was a friend of Ms. Devine feels that even though she is no longer working at Saxe, her spirit and personality are still with many people. “I knew Ms. Devine was special, but to see how many people came out for the wake and the funeral, and how many people shared stories about what she meant to them as a teacher, what she meant to them as a colleague, or as a friend, has been amazing,” Ms. Baltz said.
Ms. Baltz believes that this is only the beginning as far as the extent people are going to go to honor Ms. Devine. “This isn’t going to be the only way she is honored. I know the school is working to create an award for her and there will be an award presented at the Shore and Country Club swim teams banquet,” Ms. Baltz said. “She gave so much and did so much for everyone so I know that everyone wants to do something for her.”
Eighth grade science teacher Chris Antal has also seen the school community working together to create an assortment of future projects in Ms. Devine’s honor. “I know there were talks of putting up a tree in her name,” he said. “But as far as the teachers, we used to meet for lunch in her room, but when she went to the high school, we stopped doing that. So some of the teachers are trying to get together now on Fridays for lunch in her honor.”
Mr. Antal continues to address how outside her “teacher life,” Ms. Devine inspired the people around her just because of who she was. “She was still an amazing, giving, bubbly, thoughtful person,” Mr. Antal said. “That was really her, it wasn’t just her in her teacher world. I just hope people realize that there was no fake side to her, that was how good of a person she was,” he said.
Inside and out of the NCHS community, Kelly Devine will always be remembered as the thoughtful, caring, and inspirational individual. Her life will continue to be honored by the entire community.
