Sabrina
9:30 p.m. - June 22, 2005
Things happen from time to time that make you stop and take a good hard look at yourself. I was stunned to learn that a friend and former co-worker had died unexpectedly. Sabrina was an amazing lady. She was an incredible teacher and mentor. She had a wicked sense of humor and a mischievous smile that left you wondering when the other shoe was going to drop. But she was much more than that, she was a true friend. Someone you could count on. We bilingual teachers at Cleveland were a tight bunch. We passed our classes on to each other without changing them too much. Sabrina taught 3rd and I taught 4th then, so we talked a lot about �our kids� and about bilingual education. We both believed in bilingual/multilingual education, but only when it was fully funded, fully implemented, and staffed with properly certificated teachers. We had worked far too long with the band-aid we then called bilingual education. It killed us to see our kids failing, and no matter what we did it never got better.
We both decided to take a break from classroom teaching in June of 1993. Sabrina because working with children was compromising her immune system and me because I was done fighting the system. I remember how cried that last day as we walked from classroom to classroom saying good-bye to our Cleveland family. We didn�t know where the next year would take us, but we knew that teaching at Cleveland was unique. After a year I ended up back at Cleveland. Sabrina got her Ph.D. in education and began teaching teachers at UCSB. She loved it. She�d come back to give workshops or to bring Malaya, her little girl, by for a visit. She always looked so happy and fulfilled.
We all thought she�d gone into �remission� whatever that meant for her illness. That�s why her death came as such a shock. From what I know her body was just too tired to fight anymore and she slipped away.
I lost a friend and a colleague, but her family lost so much more.
Rest in Peace Sabrina, you more than earned it my friend.
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