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A passion for kids

By keeping her students' interest first, a teacher's aide becomes a finalist for noninstructional employee of the year.

By TIM GRANT
Published March 11, 2005

CARROLLWOOD - Students at Ben Hill Middle School have come to know Rosa Harris as their other mother.

She's found the key to their hearts with food and kindness.

If a child isn't eating at lunchtime, she'll find out why. She'll give children money if they're broke or share her own meal with them.

"I've seen her look at children's feet, put them in her car and take them to purchase shoes," said Barbara Ragin, the school's assistant principal. "That goes for other items of clothing as well."

The emotionally handicapped students she works with in her classroom get a hot breakfast twice a month. Using a small makeshift kitchen inside her classroom, she whips up pancakes, eggs, sausage and grits.

During the holidays, she makes a full meal with turkey and all the trimmings for the faculty. Mrs. Harris and several helpers start cooking around 5:30 a.m. in a consumer science classroom. Everything's ready by lunchtime.

"I love people," Mrs. Harris said.

The 61-year-old teacher's aide is one of five finalists for the Hillsborough County school system's noninstructional employee of the year award, a prize that honors the top employee from a pool of 8,843 nonteachers in the nation's ninth largest school district.

The award will be announced Tuesday at a banquet sponsored and organized by the Hillsborough Education Foundation.

As a paraprofessional, Mrs. Harris assists teachers in classrooms. Her students are as young as 11 and as old as 16. Although they are diagnosed with behavioral problems, Mrs. Harris said, "I have a good group of kids.

"Sometimes I stress myself out because I want them to learn. Sometimes they talk out of turn and get out of their seats. You want them to grow up and live a normal life."

She's known for taking children under her wing. Many of her special-needs students have joined regular classrooms after leaving her class.

"She has the patience of Job," said Nancy Anderson, the school principal. "She's a grandmother type. The kids know she'll look out for them. They know she'll get on them too."

Often they'll tell Mrs. Harris things they might not tell other adults about their home life or tough circumstances they have. Without compromising their confidentiality, she'll find a way to help them with clothes, food and personal hygiene needs.

"A lot of kids take on their parents' problems," Mrs. Harris says. "I try to put them at ease where they can learn."

Her passion for helping emotionally handicapped children began when she saw them isolated at a New York reform school, where she worked in the 1980s.

"I do my best to get them into regular class," she says. "In order to do that, they've got to behave and improve academically. You look for what's the root behind the behavior. I try to find out what's going on and meet some of their needs if I can."

Mrs. Harris and her husband of 41 years, Jessie, moved here in 1992 from Rochester, N.Y. They have five children and seven grandchildren.

A great number of the students in the whole school population know her because Mrs. Harris wears so many different hats at Ben Hill.

She does shifts in the after-school program and as a substitute teacher.

Sometimes when the cafeteria staff is short, she'll wash her hands, slip on some gloves and serve food like a regular lunchroom employee.

Her husband, a retired electrician, finally gave up suggesting that she find a higher paying career. She supplements her school earnings with a second job at a Dress Barn store.

"My husband says, "I don't know why you want to get cussed out by a kid.' But it's my passion," Mrs. Harris said. "I believe everyone has a mission in life. Mine is serving people."

Tim Grant can be reached at 813 269-5311 or at grant@sptimes.com

[Last modified March 10, 2005, 09:33:10]