For 15 years, elementary school teacher Rashean Hyde fought for her students, making sure they had everything they needed to succeed in school and in life.
She fought colon cancer with the same tenacious spirit, drawing strength from faith, family and the children to whom she had devoted her career.
Wednesday, the Columbus Municipal School District’s Teacher of the Year passed away, leaving a void within the district, particularly at Stokes-Beard Elementary Technology and Communication Magnet School, where she taught third grade and was twice a recipient of the school’s Teacher of the Year award.
She was 39 years old.
Hyde was diagnosed with cancer in September 2009, after being hospitalized with what she thought was a stomach virus. Earlier this year, facing her third bout with the disease, she began an aggressive regimen of chemotherapy.
But even then, her thoughts were more for her students than for herself. In a January interview with The Dispatch at her East Columbus home, she spoke of her passion for education, saying she didn’t know what would have happened to her if she had not become a teacher.
“I would be an incomplete vessel wandering the seas,” she said. “Whenever I am asked what it is I do, I boldly stand and proudly state, ‘I am a teacher.'”
Her colleagues described her as a passionate, involved educator with an uncanny knack for being able to reach children. Stokes-Beard Principal Sue Craddieth said Hyde saw teaching as a privilege, and her heart was broken when children needed more than she could give.
Carmen K. Sisson is the former news editor at The Dispatch.
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