Published: November 09, 2008 12:21 am            

Teacher returns from health problems, devastating flood to interact with students

TERRE HAUTE — As he does each morning, Chauncey Rose Middle School teacher Bill Latta wore a sign with his “question of the day” as he stood at 13th Street and Third Avenue during his morning bus duty.

His multiple-choice question on Oct. 2 asked students the name of Indiana’s governor:

A. Mitch French

B. Keith Mitchell

C. Mitch Daniels

“I want to get their brain working,” said Latta, 67, who is in his second year as a Chauncey Rose technology teacher.

With just minutes to go before the start of school, several “late bugs” made sure to stop and say hello to Latta as well as take the pop quiz.

If they answer the question correctly and practice good manners, they earn “paw passes” that can be used to purchase school supplies and other rewards at the school’s “Best Behavior Store.”

On this morning, one student got three paw passes: one for walking — rather than riding — his bike on the sidewalk next to school; another for answering the question of the day correctly; and a third for politely saying hello to Latta.

Another student answered incorrectly that the governor was Keith Mitchell. “You need to go to school to get smart,” Latta told him.

Teaching the students respect is high on his list.

At 6-foot, 1-inch tall and 219 pounds, he’s an imposing figure — even after a traumatic five months this past year in which he battled several serious health problems.

In spring, he learned he had a recurrence of lymphoma and had to take a leave of absence to undergo chemotherapy. He is currently in remission.

In April, he learned he had a major arterial blockage near his heart that required a stent. In July, he had a cancerous kidney removed.

To add to his challenges, Latta’s Maryland subdivision home was damaged in the June 7 flood. Water filled the basement, and he and his wife lost both their cars and had to be evacuated by boat. Fortunately, they had flood insurance and several family members to help them; they were back home within about 10 days.

Throughout his medical ordeals, Latta says the support of Chauncey Rose students and staff was important in his recovery and eventual return to the classroom.

Principal Claire Marchese describes Latta as “one of those intangibles that make Chauncey Rose special … He is past retirement age, has battled cancer, had a kidney removed in July, yet shows up each day dedicated to our students and staff.”

Despite the age difference, students do connect with him, she said. “The kids adore him,” Marchese said.

One of his sixth-grade students, Amber Young, described him as caring and considerate. “He really respects everyone,” she said.

Connecting with kids

Latta spent about 27 years at Gibault, most of that time as a shop teacher. Gibault is a home for kids who have been removed from their communities because of behavior.

A few times, Latta served as Gibault’s school principal. He didn’t work there continuously, though, and after 15 years he left to pursue other employment opportunities.

After a 16-year hiatus, Gibault asked him to return to teach, and he did. He remained there for another 12 years.

Many people know Latta through his years with the Banks of the Wabash chorus, and he also helps run the downs marker as part of the chain crew at Terre Haute South Vigo High School home football games.

A Lafayette native, he received bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Indiana State University. He and his wife, Doris, have been married for 46 years. They have four children and 10 grandchildren, all of them residing in Vigo County.

In 2007, Latta decided it was time to retire from Gibault, but he wasn’t ready to quit working. “I wanted to be able to experience the public school system,” he said. When the opening became available at Chauncey Rose, he applied and got the job. He started in 2007-08.

Although not by design, he’s spent much of his life working with at-risk youth. “I didn’t back away from it because they were at-risk kids,” he said.

“I went at it with the understanding that I’m going to work with people that are very needy, therefore I need to be well-prepared and set expectations high and stick to them,” he said. He also established clear consequences for poor behavior.

At the same time, he recognized the need to be patient and to reward students as they progressed — maybe by being a little more flexible with the rules.

“Unfortunately, some of them, you can’t reach. You try. I try awful hard to,” he said. “I hate to fail or feel like I’ve failed with somebody. But sometimes, that’s the reality of life.”

At Chauncey Rose, Latta includes a strong character education component in his instruction. When students study technology, they also learn about related careers. “How can you talk about careers if you’re not talking about good character?” Latta asks.

In one of his recent classes, they talked about the character trait of “determination.” Students were tested on it later that week.

Latta “brings such a different dimension to our school,” Marchese said. He combines the roles of grandfather and drill sergeant with a more traditional, “old school” approach to teaching that emphasizes the academic basics as well as respect for others.

“He constantly strives to grab another mind, to touch another student,” Marchese said. “Having worked with at-risk kids, he just has some techniques he uses that really seem to click with some of our more struggling students.”

Latta doesn’t lower expectations, and he has a way of connecting with them. Typically, his students don’t want to let him down, she said.

“They have so much respect for him and want to fulfill those expectations,” she said. “If Mr. Latta believes they can do it, they believe they can do it, or they will give it their best try.”

Teacher Ricardo Hutchins said Latta is an asset to the school. With his years of experience at Gibault, “He knows how to work with challenging kids” and help improve their behavior and attitudes.

At the same time, Latta is fun to be around, full of energy and upbeat in his outlook, Hutchins said. “He’s got so much energy for a guy dealing with the physical issues he’s been dealing with,” Hutchins said.

One student positively impacted by Latta is Dominic Smith, an eighth-grader who said his technology teacher taught him the importance of paying attention, which hadn’t been one of his strongest skills.

“He taught me what happens if you don’t pay attention,” and how it can affect your safety and personal life, Smith said.

Smith recently attended a conference in Indianapolis in which he was recognized — and rewarded — for paying attention.

Mounting health issues

Latta is back teaching full-time at Chauncey Rose, although when he took a medical leave last spring, some worried he might not be able to return.

Latta was first diagnosed with lymphoma about four years ago.

After treatment, he went into remission until last spring, when he suffered a relapse. This time, he learned he had a rare type called mantle cell, a non-Hodgkin form of lymphoma. He had to take a leave of absence from school, starting March 17.

It wasn’t too long afterward that he began to experience discomfort in his chest, and doctors found he had 95-percent blockage in one of his coronary arteries. At the very end of chemotherapy, he had to undergo surgery to place a stent, or small wire-mesh tube, in the blocked artery. “The doctor said we caught it just in time,” Latta said.

Fortunately, there was no damage to his heart.

Latta also talked with doctors about the possibility of a stem cell transplant with the goal of eradicating any cancer.

His insurance company said he would have to have a cancerous kidney removed before it would consider the stem cell transplant. In July, he had an operation to remove the kidney, which had renal cell carcinoma.

During a five-month period, Latta said he spent an average of more than three days per week in a hospital or doctor’s office or in some type of treatment.

Despite all he had been through this past summer, he made it back the first day of school on a half-time basis.

About six weeks ago, he returned to teaching full time.

Surrounded

by support

Both students and staff provided strong support as he battled cancer, and that concern for his well-being remains.

When he learned the cancer had returned last spring, he told his students about his health problems, and he encouraged them to talk to him and ask questions if they wanted. He told them he wasn’t looking for sympathy, but he did need their support.

“What you can do is be there for me,” he told them. “Well, they were.”

Before he went on medical leave, the students wrote him letters, asked about his health and gave him hugs. While he was on leave, staff remembered him with cards and plants.

When he returned to school, people remained concerned about his welfare. “Everybody was there to help me,” he said. “I had friends that I never knew that I had.”

He still has students at school ask him how he’s doing. Others he hasn’t even had in class know who he is. “It’s touching,” he said.

While he was on medical leave, “There wasn’t a day that students weren’t desperate to find out how he was and when he’d come back,” said Marchese, who is in her first year as principal at the middle school.

When Latta did return half-days this school year, “It pumped energy into the kids, knowing they’d walk to related arts [which includes technology] and he’d be there,” she said.

Latta also credits his family and his wife with helping him through difficult times.

Doris Latta said the past year has been a difficult one “that certainly changed all of our lives.” The already close-knit family rallied together in times of crisis and came to appreciate each other that much more.

She described her husband as a dedicated person who is very loyal to his family, his friends, his work and his students.

“He is very generous, and he’s always there for anyone who needs him,” she said.

Her husband is a fighter, she said. Through all his health problems, “He’s never felt sorry for himself.” His attitude has been, ‘We’ll get through this and we’ll get back to our normal lives,’ and we have,” Doris Latta said.

Now, he’s healthy, back to work and in remission. “We’re very grateful,” she said.

Her husband’s desire to get back to teaching and his students also helped him get through the tough times. “It is a savior for him because he loves it so much and is dedicated to it,” Doris Latta said.

Bill Latta agrees. “I couldn’t wait to get back to work,” he said. “I still feel the energy and the ability to make a difference.”

What the future holds he doesn’t know.

“If I have to take on the fight one more time, I will take the fight on one more time. You’ve got to be positive, and you have to have support,” he said. “I think I’m a lucky, blessed and fortunate person. The Good Lord must have other plans for me.”

To Hutchins and many others, Latta’s positive attitude in difficult times “lets me clearly see past my own problems and challenges … He is an inspiration.”



Sue Loughlin can be reached at (812) 231-4235 or sue.loughlin@tribstar.com.

        

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