Outgoing Higgins math teacher Carolyn Wells isn’t an advocate for cell phones in schools. However, she is thankful for the phone call placed by student Jasmine Davis to her mother LaShanda Broadnax four weeks ago.
As Wells entered her car, a parent called out to her, and she waved in response. When another parent called out from the other side of the car, Wells swung around, and her leg hit the dashboard.
“I didn’t think anything about it and all of a sudden, my pants started getting tighter and tighter and tighter,” Wells said. “I got to where I could hardly walk, but I was still going to school.”
The accidental bump eventually produced a softball-sized hematoma. Despite the pain, Wells believed the injury was minor and treated it with a combination of heat and ice.
When she couldn’t bend her leg two days later, she went to STATCare.
Wells’ teaching reputation precedes her. Her students say she is tough but fair. She is strict, but she makes her students better.
“I’m all business and I know what need,” Wells said. “I tell parents, ‘Give me your child. Let me have your child. Let me show you what I can do with your child. Just give me your child and let me put structure in them and show you what they can do.’”
Under Wells, Davis experienced her own transition. She had an F early in the school year but improved to an A. And math — the class she so despised — is now her favorite subject.
“(Wells) used to call my name all the time. She used to try to get me to lose the attitude and stuff,” Davis said. “After I got to know her, I started liking her and I started learning and listening.”
Like Davis, Aspen McCray and Jasmine Johnson perceived Wells in a different light as the year went on. They heard her message and got the results they wanted.
But four weeks ago, another ingredient was thrown into the equation when they saw their teacher in immense pain.
“You could tell by the way she was acting,” McCray said. “She was like, ‘I don’t feel like going up to the overhead because my leg hurts.’ She had it propped up.”
The trio of students called Broadnax, who is a hospice nurse, from Shannon Shell’s classroom. Davis asked her mother to come to McComb to check on her teacher.
“It looks like she’s in real bad pain,” Broadnax said, recounting the exchange with her daughter. “I said, ‘How much pain do you think she’s in?’ She said, ‘Well, Mama, it looks to me like she wants to cry. I said ‘OK’ and I turned around and came back.”
Broadnax was with a patient in New Orleans but hurried to McComb to check on Wells. She and Wells “had their moments” at the start of the school year. But, like Davis, Broadnax appreciated Wells’ effect on her daughter.
“After I got the chance to sit down and talk to her, she’s a nice, sweet lady,” Broadnax said. “I knew that if Jasmine called and said something was wrong with Ms. Wells, I knew I had to come, because she doesn’t get along with not one (other) teacher.”
Broadnax reached Wells’ classroom shortly before school ended that day. At first, Wells thought Broadnax came for a conference.
“I said, ‘When did you use the phone? You brought your mother all the way from New Orleans?’ ” Wells said. “She left her job to come see a teacher. And people think parents do not care, parents aren’t involved. And just look at her. Look at her.”
Also to Wells’ surprise, Broadnax asked to see her leg. Wells said her leg was “solid black” and twice its normal size with a large, visible hematoma.
Fortunately, she was already on large doses of Coumadin, a blood thinner. This prevented the clots that could have formed.
Wells followed Broadnax’s medical expertise, and her damaged leg is still in its recuperative phase. The surprisingly mobile Wells could bend her leg on Tuesday, but her body must absorb about another four tablespoons of blood for the hematoma to completely heal.
When ailing, her students took up the slack. Their speed matches hers when it’s time to walk to the cafeteria for lunch. They also policed themselves.
“I didn’t have any trouble with discipline,” Wells said. “The kids would discipline themselves. They’d say, ‘OK now, we’re not going to do this.’ ”
“To see those children just rally around me, to protect me and to take care of me, I thought ‘Look a’here, look a’here’ ” Well said.
“These are our future citizens of America, and people think our children are so ‘bad’ these days. And these children — look at them. I was amazed.”
