State award goes to Bethune educator with her ‘soul invested’ in students
Tequila Laramee named Education Support Professional of the Year by Education Minnesota
By David Pierini staff reporter
As a little girl, Tequila Laramee knew she wanted to be a caretaker to provide a semblance of stability to others that she herself lacked growing up in a troubled home in North Minneapolis.
Working today as an associate educator in a kindergarten classroom at Bethune Community School, Laramee assists the licensed teacher by leading small groups in math and literacy lessons. She also brings love, support and an empathic sense for when poverty or violence manifests with a child’s sudden shift in attention or behavior.
One colleague describes her as a goddess. Another says she is glue, whether holding together exhausted staff members or a child coming undone from stress and confusion.
It was this type of testimony that moved Education Minnesota to recently name Laramee, 36, the Education Support Professional (ESP) of the Year. The award comes with a new iPad and $1,200, and puts her in the running for the National ESP of the Year.
Laramee started with the Minneapolis Public Schools 10 years ago working in after-school programs. She is in her seventh year as an ESP at Bethune.
Tequila Laramee leads kindergartners in a Bingo game designed to help them learn the letters of the alphabet.
An ESP provides more than an extra set of hands to certified teachers. They are often from the communities in which they work and the trust children and parents have in them bolster the learning environment.
But as valued as they are by teachers, they are among the lowest paid staff in schools. The salary range is between $19,000 and $29,000 in Minneapolis Public Schools and many ESP’s work other jobs to help support their families.
“We’ve been hemorrhaging ESPs this year because they aren’t making enough money to survive,” said Greta Callahan, president of the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers. “An ESP makes sure that first, a child is OK, safe, that they’re fed and not experiencing trauma. Without someone like Tequila, you can’t meet those needs.”
Laramie describes her childhood as a blur. She remembers when her home was raided by police and a parent with a drug addition wound up in custody. She lived for a time in foster care and always seemed to enroll in a different elementary school each year. She takes special care in the small group lessons because she did not have someone in her home who read to her or helped with her school work.
She set her sights on a teaching career “to be that person for someone else.”
Laramee graduated from Patrick Henry High School and was the first person in her family to attend college. But debt and other events forced her to drop out. She is seven classes shy of graduating from Metro State University and the $1,200 she won with the award went toward paying down some of her school debt so she can get back into school and get her teaching degree.
“Our young students go through and have to overcome so much,” Laramee said. “I want students to know that they don’t have to be a stereotype or a product of their environment. They can have a different mindset.”
Callahan was a kindergarten teacher at Bethune before she became union president and worked alongside Laramee.
She said Laramee knows how to lead a classroom and “a piece of paper” is all that stands in the way of her being a full-fledged teacher.
“She is a goddess,” said Callahan, who nominated Laramee for the award. “She just cares so much and is the hardest worker. She turns up every single day for our kids. Every ounce of her soul is invested in doing right for them. There’s no one like her in the school system.”
Laramee is in her second year as the ESP for kindergarten teacher Kari Ehlers, who said she feels “blessed” to have her in the classroom.
“She has a ton of pride in Bethune and is an incredible role model for our young girls,” Ehlers said. “She’s a caretaker who has high expectations. We need her to be heading her own classroom.”
Laramee is grateful for the award and the kind words that have followed. She feels like others she works with are just as deserving. Laramee says she is just doing her job.
“I don’t know how else to be,” she said. “If I care about you, I will do all I can for you. That’s the love I feel.”