She stands at the head of her class

Susan Poindexter prefers staying in the background.

She’s not fond of politics or having her picture taken. She grew accustomed to moving aside for her older sister, who did the talking for all six siblings.

But if you go through Poindexter’s special education classes at Sacajawea Middle School, you’d better not forget her lessons.

Lesson one: She will not give up on you.

Poindexter’s been known to show up at the high school to check on past students who’ve lost their focus.

“I have my connections at Lewis and Clark,” Poindexter said, a 15-year veteran instructional assistant at Sacajawea.

Her back-to-school routine will take a twist this fall.

For the first time, Poindexter will enter Room 129 this fall as a certified teacher, a status that took 20 years to reach.

Almost all instructional assistants talk about going back to school and becoming teachers. Very few make it happen, said Sacajawea assistant principal Rob Reavis.

“She’s very rare,” Reavis said.

Twenty years ago, Poindexter started her college education. Then she stopped to start a family. She raised an energetic daughter and worked in the Spokane Public Schools, first at Grant Elementary as an instructional assistant, then at Ferris High School as the attendance secretary. When that job was lost to cuts, she took a position as a special education assistant at Sacajawea, currently the largest middle school in the district with 950 students.

“The people I work with are like family,” she said.

Five years ago, Poindexter started college classes again. During the quiet sustained reading periods for students, she’d break out her textbooks. Her after-school hours and weekends were dedicated to her studies.

“No matter what, I was going to graduate,” Poindexter said.

After three years at Spokane Falls Community College and two years at Gonzaga University, Poindexter did her student teaching at Sacajawea last year.

“We wouldn’t let her teach anywhere else,” Reavis said. “We were worried we’d lose her.”

There wasn’t a full-time position available for Poindexter. Spokane Public Schools cut back special education programs districtwide to cope with a tight budget. The best Reavis could offer was a split job that combined part-time teaching duties with instructional assistant duties.

“I was worried what we were offering wasn’t enough,” Reavis said.

Poindexter took the job. Meanwhile, she’s working on her master’s in education at Gonzaga.

“I wanted to stay at Sacajawea. I love the way they treat the students,” Poindexter said. “They don’t give up on students.”

Colleagues and one of her former principals, Herb Rotchford, said Poindexter’s quiet manner has won over the roughest of students who pass through the school.

“I’m a little more boisterous, and I get loud once in a while when I don’t want to waste time doing things the quiet way,” said Gary Johnson, a special education teacher who’s worked with Poindexter for 14 years. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard her raise her voice.”

She was so quiet, there were times he feared for her ability to control the students. But she had it down.

“She just stepped right up to the plate,” he said. “She can handle the roughest of the rough. We have some really tough kids.”

Sacajawea did try offering her a position of working with the more severely disabled students. The work would have been easier because the students are less demanding and more loving, she said. She declined.

“I usually thrive on working with the most difficult students,” Poindexter said.

Besides, she didn’t want students to go through what she did.

Poindexter was a strong student, but in grade school teachers singled her out because they believed her penmanship needed help. Her letters still lean left on the page rather than the preferred forward tilt.

“I spent my recesses inside working on my handwriting. I felt humiliated when I had to stay in,” Poindexter said. “I was a very good student but it made me want to shut down.”

She wanted to disappear. That can be hard when you’re from a well-known family. She is a granddaughter of Spokane pioneer Lillian Burnette, one of the first African Americans to settle into Spokane around 1927.

Poindexter discovered that being smart in school was another way to gain unwanted attention, so she started coasting through classes.

“You just want to fit in. You don’t want anyone to know school comes easy to you,” she said.

That all changed at Shadle High School when she met that one teacher who woke her up. Peggy Kraft told the class no one earned an A in her U.S. history class. That challenge pushed Poindexter to excel again. She pushed and earned the impossible A. From that point on, she focused on her grades – all because of one teacher.

Many of us have a teacher like that in our lives.

“Susan is that teacher for a lot of kids,” Reavis said.

Last weekend, Poindexter was out of town on a final summer getaway with her husband at a resort run by the Coeur d’Alene Indian tribe. One of the chefs in a white hat walked up to her, asked how she was doing and showed her pictures of his five kids.

Twenty years earlier she worked with a young man at Ferris. Here he was with a happy life and successful career.

“That made my week,” she said.