42-y-o teacher dies suddenly - Her daughter scheduled to sit PEP today

Keisha Hayle, principal of Padmore Primary School in rural St Andrew believes that a combination of work-related stress and illness contributed significantly to the sudden death of one of her teachers on Monday.

Ann-Marie Wallace-Lewis, 42, collapsed and died at her home in Burnside Valley, shortly after returning home from school. A portion of Monday's assignment was still written on her blackboard in her grade four classroom yesterday. Hayle said Lewis would complain of not feeling well and was under "teaching stress".

"Last week she was not feeling well and had taken some days off. The truth is, our teachers in Jamaica work five days a week in the classroom, and the other two days are used for lesson plans; so we work seven days a week. We also have our personal problems. In recent times, you will notice that our principals, vice-principals and teachers are dropping down," said Hayle. She said that she was heading home from school when she got the devastating call.

"I immediately went to Mrs Lewis' house, where I found out that it was true. She was at school yesterday (Monday) looking all glamorous. She was a person who internalised her struggles, and it so happened that I sat at her desk and spent an half an hour with her and we spoke. She liked to put the best out, like all of us, so you would have to look at her sometimes when she is really distressed to see it on her. She was really looking good and we didn't see it on her," Hayle said. Wallace-Lewis was a mother of three, and her daughter, who is a grade five student at the institution, is slated to participate in the PEP exams today. Wallace-Lewis was an educator for 15 years and joined Padmore's staff last September.

Classes were held online yesterday as the staff mourned. Sitting among her teachers in a classroom, Hayle described Wallace-Lewis as a dedicated educator and a people person.

"She was a very bubbly person and she loved her job. She loved her students, and she got along with everybody."

Hayle emphasised that teaching is often a 24-hour job, adding that there is more pressure on the teachers to play a motherly role to the children.

"Sometimes I will get up out of my bed at 2 a.m. to deal with a parent-student situation. I remember coming here at 3 a.m. because a little boy left a pencil case under the tent and the mother beat him from the house to come up to Padmore to look for it. I had to leave my house in my PJs (pyjamas) to come up here to deal with the situation. Sometimes the children are sad, as their mother or father is stressed. When they come to us, it takes more out of us to teach them, and we have our personal issues also," Hayle said.

She said the school is also lacking basic necessities, such as a staff room and sickbay, which adds more pressure.

"What we get for our pay is dirt salary. They need to pay us for lesson plans and electricity subsidy. We here at Padmore don't get remote allowance. Once our classes reach 30 students, we should have an assistant. There are 38 students in Mrs Lewis' class and she teaches about six subjects. It's hard to deliver the curriculum while trying to keep order in the class and all of that. It is too much, and at the end of the day you just have a pounding headache," she said.

One teacher, Alecia Campbell, said just the number of children in a class is pressuring enough.

"You won't find a class with all 39 or 40 students that are good-behaving. There are 40 different personalities, and to be a single teacher in the class is overwhelming. Remember, we teach math, language, social studies, among other subjects, and it's pressuring. We go home and deal with our personal lives; and then we have to be ready for school the next day," she said.