Blevins retires: Special education teacher taught love; compassion

Her career as a waitress was over. Colleen Blevins was making more money than ever while working at a restaurant in Branson, Missouri, but a rare form of arthritis was crippling her.

“I wasn’t able to work anymore,” Blevins, a Kay County native, said. “That’s when I went back to school.”

Blevins became a teacher, embarking upon a career that would take her into a few schools – and into the lives of countless students with special needs.

After 11 years of working in the Blackwell Public Schools district, Blevins taught her final lesson in May to the students she calls her own. But as her students say, those lessons will live on long after the final school bell rings.

AN UPHILL BATTLE

Blevins was born and raised in Kay County, graduating from Blackwell High School in 1975. She attended Northern Oklahoma College with plans of becoming a police officer. She married her husband, and in 1977, she birthed two sons, Cory and Cody. Motherhood put her collegiate career on hold.

“My son Cody, he was deaf and blind,” Blevins said. “His brain would kind of short circuit. Now and then he could see the light, but it wasn’t a consistent thing.”

Blevins took Cody – who had cerebral palsy – to therapy every day, sometimes two or three times per day. Therapists would use lights, massages, colors, textures and other tools to stimulate his brain.

“I was learning from all of these women what to do to help him, and so I learned a lot of things,” Blevins said. “The first night the stimulation therapist finished with him, he rolled over, and that was a big thing. We celebrated and celebrated. I said, ‘How are we going to teach him if he can’t hear us or see us?’ And she looked at me, and she winked and she smiled and said, ‘He can feel us.’”

Although Cody made some progress in therapy, he died when he was two and a half. Not long after, Blevins and her family moved to Tulsa and later wound up in Branson, Missouri. There, she took a job as a waitress.

But as she worked, something was happening in her body. Her bones were decaying with a highly uncommon form of arthritis. Her doctor said he’d only seen one other case of it. Other medical professionals said she had the bones of an 84-year-old woman. By the time she was 35, she was in a wheelchair.

“But it wasn’t for long,” Blevins said, “because God fixed me.”

A NEW START

With her career in food service finished because of her health, Blevins – then in Arkansas –signed up for the Arkansas Rehabilitation program, which could help her pay for a college degree. Cody’s memory was with her as she chose a new career in education.

“With my son being special needs … I always wanted to teach special needs children,” Blevins said.

Blevins was told the rehabilitation program had run out of money for the year. She was leaving the building when one of the directors asked Blevins to share her life’s story with him.

“By the time I was finished talking to him, he said, ‘You know, I went to school to help people just like you. There’s no money, but I’m going to make sure you go to school,’” Blevins said. “That was God.”

With the help of the program, Blevins got a degree in science and special education in 1994. But the biggest help she found came from above. Still facing the effects of arthritis, she wheeled herself into her parents’ Arkansas home one night while they were doing a Bible study.

“I went in in a wheelchair and said, ‘The church doesn’t believe in miracles anymore, but I do,’” Blevins said. “And I quoted the scripture, ‘If any sick be among you, let them call upon the elders of the church, and let them pray over them and anoint them with oil and with thanksgiving. The sick shall be healed.’ … I felt the tingling in my legs come up my body. I walked out of my mom and dad’s house that night.”

When she returned to her own home later that night, the light on the answering machine was flashing. Her brother, a pastor in Oklahoma, left her a message: “Colleen, just wanted you to know, we had prayer meeting tonight. … I interceded for you. They anointed me with oil. You’re healed.’”

“You know what scripture he quoted?” Blevins asked. “Exact same scripture.”

TIME FOR TEACHING

Blevins obtained a master’s degree in 1996 and taught for several years before returning to Oklahoma. She began working at Blackwell Middle School in 2012 as a special education teacher, moving to Blackwell High School a few years later.

She viewed her students not just as pupils, but as her own children – her “babies,” she said.

“When they said, ‘This one can’t read’ or ‘That one can’t,’ then that was a challenge to me: ‘OK, now what are you doing to do about it, teacher? How are you going to make sure that they can?’” Blevins said.

Blevins said she wanted to prove to her students that they could achieve in life, overcoming the obstacles their disabilities posed. Sometimes, she’d be teaching a lesson to a class of students who couldn’t read. For those students, discouragement set in.

That’s when Blevins poured out encouragement. She told her students: “You might not be able to read it today, but you know what my job is? … My job is to make sure you can read it by the end of this year. You guys want to work on that? Because I guarantee you that I can make you be able to read it in the year. You believe me?’”

“By the end of the year, they would believe me, and they would do it,” Blevins said. “I would just make them believe in themselves. I knew they could, but I knew it was my job to teach them.”

LIFE LESSONS

At Blackwell High School, Blevins taught the life skills class for students with special needs. It included every academic subject and more. According to her students, life skills are exactly what she gave them.

Sara Herren, one of Blevins’ students at Blackwell High School, said Blevins made learning fun – and meaningful.

“She cared for us,” Herren said. “Not only did she teach us, we were her own kids. She gave us love and support, and I guess you would say nourishment. If we were down, she brought us back up, and she didn’t let us be sad. She would talk to us like a mother would. … If it wasn’t for her, I don’t know where I would be today.”

Blevins often took her students out to eat and go shopping. Both in and out of the classroom, she lived out her Christian faith by praying for her students.

“I felt that powerful prayer. I felt at peace,” Herren said. “My soul, my spirit wasn’t restless. It was peaceful. She touched me and she said a prayer for me, and it brought joy back into my life. … I’m someone that had a tough life – been through trials and tribulations a lot. When she came into my life, I didn’t understand how God brought her into my life. That was good. She came into my life ever since then. I’ve changed for the better.

“I never told her, but I would die for her because she did a lot for us. She bent her back over for us, and even after class, she still has contact with us. I would do anything for her.”

Rose Roberts, another one of Blevins’ former students, said math was one of her weaker points in school. But Blevins was there to help her.

“She’s really special, and she’s really cool to be a teacher,” Roberts said. “She’s really a nice person. … She’s really kind.”

Roberts and Blevins still keep in touch, and though Blevins will be moving back to Missouri in the near future, Roberts hopes she and her former classmates still will be able to see Blevins.

“They’re going to miss her a lot,” Roberts said. “She can always come visit. I bet she will.”

Taylor Macioge, another one of Blevins’ students, described her as sweet, strong, smart and kind. She often said “I love you,” Macioge said.

Students weren’t the only people who saw Blevins’ heart for students. Jaylene Soulek, who graduated from Blackwell High School with Blevins, served as principal at Blackwell Middle School and Blackwell High School while Blevins worked at the schools. She said Blevins often spent her own money to take students bowling or to eat dinner at restaurants.

“She was self-driven, self-motivated – did everything possible for the students,” Soulek said. “It didn’t matter if it was related to schoolwork or classwork or not, she was going to take care of the kids one way or another. … She wanted the kids to experience things that everybody else did.”

Based on her own life’s experience, Blevins has a big heart for children, Soulek said.

“She never saw a kid that she felt like couldn’t do something,” Soulek said. “She felt like you could teach every kid, no matter what, and she’s right.”

FINDING PURPOSE

Although she worked with students who have disabilities, Blevins said she never felt defeated. She credited that to God and her team of paraprofessionals.

“My helpers are the best,” Blevins said. “There’s never enough money to pay them for what they’re worth. They have hearts and patience of gold, and I would trust them all with my life.”

Getting a lesson across to students meant getting creative, Blevins said. When momentum began to build, “they would just light up,” Blevins said of her students.

“You could see the pride come on,” she said. “They would start talking louder. They would answer questions. They would hold their head higher. Well, you knew you were part of making young men and women, and I would tell them, ‘You all are young men and women, and you’re the best the school has to offer.’”

Blevins retired because of health issues, though she didn’t want to give up her job, she said. It was her calling.

“It’s the most joyful thing to help anyone, but when you get to help them every day all day long, it’s so joyful. It’s just joyful,” Blevins said as she cried. “I love my job. It’s not tolerable – I love it. It’s who I am.”

Though she’s retired now, she plans to publish a children’s book one day. She also plans to keep in touch with her students and spend more time with her family.

She may not be in the classroom, but that’s where her heart remains. Those years in the classroom went so well, she said, because her students knew they meant something to her and her team

“I think they know from the get-go that we have their best interests at heart,” she said of her students. “We believe in them, and they feel the love we give them, and we tell them every day. … And it’s not words. We show them, and we teach them how to love themselves and love others.

“We knew we were working for God. He was our boss, and these babies were precious gifts that were entrusted to us, and we felt honored to work with these babies to help them. … There’s nothing like helping people that can’t help themselves, and you’re helping them, and you’re getting paid for it, and you just get so much joy from it.”