Author Spotlight
Addie Moore
High- Acceptance of coming out as a part of the LGBTQ community
Before she presented this year’s first day of school “get to know the teacher” presentation, math teacher Emily Colebank was nervous — she was about to introduce her female fiancé, Hailey. Back when Colebank graduated from East in 2013, she wouldn’t have felt comfortable publicly coming out in the Columbia blue halls.
But when the picture loaded, Colebank received no significant response from students — they treated it like coming out to a 30-person classroom is perfectly normal and acceptable. Colebank was elated.
“It’s been really positive knowing that 10 years ago, this school [had] a completely different culture,” Colebank said. “Since I left and returned, it feels like a much safer place for teachers to be [part of the LGBTQ+ community], but also for kids to be living their truth.”
Low- Freshman float’s flat tire on Lancer Day
As the freshman class StuCo sponsor, Colebank’s expectations were high for the council’s Lancer Day “Space Jam” themed float.
All went well until the float got a flat tire — so flat that the metal frame skidded down the Mission Rd. pavement, forcing the drivers to pull off-route.
Walking behind a group of disappointed freshmen reminded Colebank of the same disappointment she faced as an 18-year-old when she discovered her float was completely trashed on her senior year Lancer Day. The orchestra float Colebank spent hours building was vandalized the morning of the parade. Colebank was forced to skip school that day to remake the float.
Buffalo- Not being able to know students during covid
During Colebank’s first year of teaching, she taught on Webex during COVID-19 to a screen of gray boxes without even the slightest clue who her students were.
When she was finally able to teach in-person toward the end of 2021, a bunch of unrecognizable students — who she’s technically known for months — walked into the classroom. Due to the short amount of time left in the school year, Colebank wasn’t able to develop relationships with her students as she regularly does.
“I feel like there’s this whole year of kids that’s been around the school with me the entire time, but I just don’t know them that well,” Colebank said.
High- sharing a room with Ms. Horn
After spending 17 years sitting at desks pushed up against each other, math teachers Monique Goodeyon and Jennifer Horn were destined to become close.
Goodeyon and Horn, along with a few other teachers in the math department, have connected in the classroom as well as outside of school. Goodeyon and Horn have even gone on lake and beach trips together.
“You always have a partner,” Goodeyon said. “There’s always somebody there to bump ideas off of and vent to.”
Low- Teacher cuts (last hired, first fired)
In 2009, the Shawnee Mission School District went through a period of laying off their staff. Their tactic for choosing which staff to let go — summarized with the “last hired, first fired” slogan — terrified the newly-hired Goodeyon.
“The former Department Chair came up to me in the hallway and said, ‘It’s going to be you,’” Goodeyon said. “Then she came back to me the next day and was not very kind to me and said, ‘It’s not going to be you, it’s going to be somebody else.’”
Thankfully for Goodeyon, her certification to teach AP and IB classes saved her from being laid off.
Buffalo- Falling in front of the entire student body during a pep assembly
While rapidly wrapping a student in toilet paper during a pep assembly a few years ago, Goodeyon tripped and face planted in front of the entire student body.
Completely mortified, she laughed it off.
As if the pep assembly wasn’t enough, clumsy Goodeyon has tripped in the parking lot, in the hallway and many other places all over the building — all of which was captured by her colleagues and joked about later on.
“There’s far too many videos of me falling down in this place,” Goodeyon said.
High- Sense of belonging at East (30 years total here)
When math teacher Hannah Pence was a senior at East, she was voted “most likely to return to East as a teacher.” Since then, Pence has spent 26 additional years as a Lancer.
She even unintentionally decorated her home blue, black and white — most of her life has been consumed by East.
“Majority of the important people in my life come from East,” Pence said. “They’re my friends from highschool, colleagues that I’ve worked with and I even met my husband because of my colleagues here.”
Low- Leaving the family created at East
Leaving colleagues that she’s spent the last two decades with has been hard for Pence. She’s saying goodbye to people she’s seen everyday and a building she’s been in for 30 years. She’s leaving her East family in exchange for more time with her children and biological family.
“I’m a huge sap,” Pence said. “There will be lots of tears as the year continues for me.”
Even though she’s sad to walk out of room 412 for the last time, she still cherishes 26 years of memories behind that door.
Buffalo- Cake on Cake Day was smashed in her face in the discrete math class
In her Discrete Math class on “Cake Day” — a day dedicated to slicing cake into fair parts based on percentages and then eating it — a group of students took a piece and smashed it into Pence’s face.
The entire class was silent for a moment, not knowing whether Pence thought it was funny or mad, but after Pence’s shock settled in, they were all able to laugh about it.
“Once everybody realized it was OK, we all relaxed and breathed again,” Pence said. “But there was some terror for a few minutes.”
A Hauberk photographer, knowingly in on the surprise, even got a picture of Pence’s icing-covered face and put it in that year’s yearbook.
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