Letter to the Editor: O'Fallon Parent Praises Dardenne Elementary School Teacher

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Hi Dr. DuBray,

I wanted to send you a letter to talk to you about my daughter Allison Pierce who is in Mrs. Patchin's first grade class.

Back in August, the week before school started, a tragic event happened on my street. The 18-year-old boy across the street hung himself in his garage. My daughter came yelling in the house that the neighbor was hurt my husband ran over and began doing CPR.

Apparently the mom came home and opened the garage door and saw him hanging and started yelling and screaming and crying. So, of course all the children outside playing went running over to see what was going on.

All of the parents on the street started to cry and basically freak out. One neighbor got all the small kids and her own and took them all in her house. A week and a day later, my daughter Allison started first grade. I had a hard time getting her on the bus, but managed. When I went up to school to meet her for lunch on the first day of school, she clung to me crying and begging me to take her home. I did.

This was the beginning of what I call three-months of sheer heck! For the next two weeks, I took her to school screaming and kicking. Literally. We had a meeting with the Dr. Hutcheson (the principal) and the school counselor and we decided to take her to a therapist. She talked with Allison for two hours for two visits.

The therapist told me she had Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and Separation Anxiety. We were told that her seeing the boy and all the the adults she knew and felt safe with mortified and acting extreme that night, changed her view of the world.

She then told us that PTSD is the diagnosis because Allison doesn't know how to process the emotions or thoughts that she has of that night. She no longer felt safe. Which brought her to the next diagnosis of Separation Anxiety. She needed her dad and I like never before to make her feel safe again.

I took the idea of the therapist and went to school for almost a whole week with Allison. sitting in her classes all day. Let me tell you, I could not believe the crud that Mrs. Patchin had to deal with. There were so many behavioral issues with her students, I began to live in a state of nausea everyday before entering the class.

I called her on the second day of school and told her that I couldn't stomach sitting in her class again. That my nerves were shot. She agreed, that there was a lot of behavioral issues. I felt so sorry for her. No human being should deal with what she dealt with and the behavioral issues I am talking about weren't coming from Allison, these were different.

The students misbehaved, were rude and mouthy and threw tantrums. I went into Dr. Hutcheson's office the next morning to ask her to pull Allison out of that class room, right away. I felt that if Allison is going to work through this, that she didn't need all the extra commotion going on next to her, that was in that classroom.

Dr. Hutcheson agreed. On a final note, Dr. H said that she had complete confidence that Mrs. Patchin was going to get full control of her class and that things were going to settle down. That should have been my first hint that Mrs. Patchin was an extraordinary teacher. Allison refused to change classes. And that should have been my second clue that Mrs. Patchin was amazing.

I ended up not sitting in the class with Allison by the fourth day I guess. For the next three months, all the way until the last day before Christmas break, everyday was heartbreaking. I would drop Allison off to anyone standing there who had a few minutes to take her from me. There isn't one teacher or aid or secretary who didn't take their turn holding her back so I could walk out the door. Allison would scream at the top of her lungs, she would run out of the doors of the school. She would bang on the window watching me leave and scream don't leave me! It was awful!

I would call Mrs. Patchin and email her and I even tracked her down on Facebook, just to talk about Allison. When Allison was seeing a therapist, Mrs. Patchin asked for permission to call the therapist to see what she could do to help out. She ended up on the phone with the therapist, in the evening, on her own time for more than 30 minutes. I found myself calling her at 8 or 9 o'clock at night just to talk to her.

Not at any point did she get angry with me or act like she didn't want to help me or talk to me. Again, this was way after school was over for the day. There were times that I knew she was busy would talk to me still.

My husband and I were seeing the same therapist as Allison and she told me that she was afraid for me and that I should check into a stress unit right away. Well, I couldn't because I am a stay at home mom and my husband is the breadwinner and had to go to work everyday.

So, basically what happened was Jennifer Patchin unknowingly took me in under her wing. She was always very professional and very supportive. To be honest, I can't really stand to hear my best friends troubles 95 percent of the time and Mrs. Patchin never treated me that way.

Its so important to me that you understand how amazing she is. Today we were late getting to school and I was walking Allison to class, afraid she was going to pull one of her fits and there stood Mrs. Patchin. She said "Oh Allison, I am so happy to see you, everyone in class is going to be so happy too" how wonderful is that?

There were times in the beginning before I started leaving Allison in the office, that I would walk her to class and she of course was crying and Mrs. Patchin would hug her, and tell her she loved her and that it made her so sad to see her cry. Jennifer Patchin basically said everything I wanted to say to Allison, I was just too exhausted.

I have never met another teacher in the world like this. She is beyond extraordinary. She was the glue that kept me and my family together. And I don't even think she truly understands that either. She is so nice, when I've told her that in the past, she just smiled and said, "Oh, I doubt it."

God knew what was going to happen this year and he sent me and Allison her for a reason. I have nominated her for just about every teacher award there is. I want to get the point across that Mrs. Jennifer Patchin goes above and beyond anything I have every seen before.

When Allison's other teachers were frustrated or tired of the same thing everyday, Mrs. Patchin kept her head high and stayed positive, for Allison's sake. My daughter has missed so much school this year that she is behind. Mrs. Patchin has kept me informed of everything happening and even suggesting more things to do, like send Allison to reading this summer at South Middle School.

She never gives up. She just wants what's best for each of her students, and has shown she will NOT stop until she gets the best for them. I know teachers are caring and supportive and all the things like that, but no teacher I have ever met has ever taken such extra steps to help a child and her child's family out. All the money in the world isn't enough to repay Jennifer Patchin for all she's done for my daughter, and me!

Dana Pierce

O'Fallon, MO