An Unusual Rally on the Quad

On October 11 Dr. Linda Evans, a fifteen-year veteran of Mayfair, was killed in an auto accident while commuting to school for her zero-period Spanish class.

Last night I attended a memorial service in her honor at the school. It was our public recognition of her years of dedication of service to students and local community. It was held outside, in the main quad, about an hour before sunset.

The Air Force ROTC provided an honor guard and color guard, the school band performed the national anthem. A student from the middle school Bible Club gave the invocation.

Then followed a couple of speakers from the faculty, notably Mr. John Olson, a long-time friend and neighbor. A slide show of stills put to music: Linda as a young adult; traveling around the world; in her classroom. A member of her family spoke, and thanked the school for its outpouring of love. A student presented a surfboard (Dr. Evans, though 61 at her death, was a life-long surfer) to the family, signed and annotated by a couple of hunderd students. The football team came forward, and the head coach presented the family with a game ball (three of the four longitudinal sections of the ball painted white to allow for signatures). Dr. Evans was a huge football fan as well, always on the sidelines at games.

Because it was high school, it had a very assembly feel to it. But that's high school, and that observation is not meant as a criticism. There were probably over four hundred people there, mostly students and faculty, but a large number of parents, other school staff, the mayor of Lakewood, and of course our administration and the superintendent.

The most obvious symbol of the event was the lighting of candles. Early in the service, we teachers came forward to light single candles from a large candle on a stand next to the podium, then dispersed among the crowd to light candles that had been given out as people arrived. The candles burned through the ceremony, as we sat there tending our flickering flames in our laps. At the conclusion of the service, we all blew out our candles together to achieve a sense of closure. All in all, fairly effective, and a nice touch.

Even though it is a governmet school, spiritual input seemed welcome: the heartfelt invocation given by the middle school student, who closed his prayer "in the name of Jesus" wasn't blinked at, and seemed perfectly at place at a memorial service in a predominantly Protestant country, The president of the board of education, a local politician (they are voted into position by the public) felt free enough to include Elizabeth Kubler-Ross, the noted spiritualist, into his comments. Though he used her deathbed laments only to speak of the need to seek humility, anyone who knows the name Kubler-Ross instantly recognizes not only her ground-breaking work in the field of death, dying and grieving, but also her foray into spiritism (in her case, attempts to communicate the the dead), which cast a shadow over her academic legitimacy, as any dabbling with the occult will tend to do. He was careful never to turn the corner and actually mention anything spiritual in his address, but as soon as I heard her name I listened closely to see if he was going to slip any "other side" references in. He held back, which made me wonder why he brought her up in the first place. Was he suggesting Dr. Evans lacked humility? Hardly seems that was his motive. Seemed to be an fence-sitting attempt at spiritual comfort in a politically correct arena.

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Dr. Evans' classes are being taught by a new teacher, and that must be a difficult position to be in. I've heard though my student minions that classroom control is almost non-existent, and if that is true, what does it say about students' expression of sadness and respect for their former teacher? If they're screwing around in the very room that is still filled with her personal belongings, belongings that serve as reminders to the kids of their late teacher (not to mention the banners and balloons that festoon the outside of the room), it makes all their professions of love for and life lessons learned from her seem like mere lip-service. Sad. And it could be easily remedied. Well, at least I know I could do it with the snap of a finger, but I have to have sympathy for this new teacher's difficult situation. It's not her behavior I'm noting here, but the students' alleged self-centeredness and lack of respect for their recently passed teacher that is so galling. She shouldn't have to remind them to behave well, under the circumstances, it seems to me.

Farewell, Dr. Evans. You drank life to the dregs. You'll be missed.

What is the lesson for us? Gather Ye Rosebuds While Ye May…