St. Joseph Elementary School teacher goes out of her way to support former student

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Angela Hummel

OGDEN — St. Joseph Elementary School teacher Angela Hummel, like many of her peers, has been going the extra mile to take care of her students during the pandemic. When onsite classes were shut down, she taught her students online. In August, most of her 60 or so students returned to the classroom, but four students participate remotely, so she has to prepare lessons for both onsite and remote learning.

On top of that, last November Hummel began pursuing a master’s program in special education. She is also married and the mother of three children ages 11, 14 and 16. Which makes it all the most surprising that when a former student reached out to her shortly after she began her master’s program, Hummel dropped everything to help.

Jayne Frailie, 12, whose mother Kathryn taught third grade at St. Joseph’s last year, was in Hummel’s home room class. Her family moved to Alabama several months ago. Although she now attends school there and loves her teachers, it was to Hummel Jayne reached out when she went through a difficult time last November. Jayne was exposed to COVID-19 at school and subsequently tested positive, so she had to quarantine at home for 14 days. Because Kathryn Frailie has health issues, she couldn’t risk exposure to the coronavirus, and Jayne’s father Dan travels for work, so Jayne was faced with going through quarantine alone in her bedroom.

Jayne let Hummel know what she would be going through. Instead of simply commiserating with her former student, Hummel suggested Jayne find some crafts they could do together over Zoom to help distract her from having to stay in her room for two weeks straight and to give her someone to talk to. Over the course of the quarantine, the two corresponded regularly by email and visited by Zoom twice, doing Christmas crafts together.  Hummel’s daughter Abbie participated in one of the activities. As they worked, they visited.

“Jayne was excited to talk about things that were going on in her life, including how her mom and sisters were doing and  how she was adjusting to moving to Alabama,” Hummel said.

For the second craft, Jayne was thrilled to be able to make her mother a gnome for Christmas; gnomes are her favorite.

In the months since, Hummel, who has been teaching at St. Joseph’s for eight years, has stayed in touch with Jayne.

“I always like to check in with all of my former students whenever I can anyway, and I had gotten to know Jayne a little better because her mom had worked at the school,” Hummel said.

Hummel’s kindness made quarantine bearable for Jayne and helped her make it through, said Frailie, who recently reached out to Utah Catholic Schools Superintendent Mark Longe to praise Hummel.

“Angela could have done many things when she received that email,” Frailie wrote to Longe. “She could have just responded that she was sorry and would be praying, or she could have not responded at all.”

Longe said he was touched by Frailie’s letter and shared it with Hummel’s principal Nancy Essary, who also happens to be the teacher’s mother. In his message accompanying the letter, Longe expressed gratitude for Hummel’s dedication “not only to the mission of Catholic education, but for being such a caring and loving person.”

“I realize that Jayne is no longer a current student at St. Joseph’s and that Angela has gone above and beyond her duties as a teacher,” he wrote. “How nice to know that she is a product of our school system and of course the daughter of two loving parents.”

For her part, Hummel said helping Jayne was just a natural thing to do.

“It all goes back to how I was raised; I’ve always been raised to give of myself to others,” she said. “I think just with the nature of this time period and knowing the struggle kids are going through, that if my own children felt isolated and worried I wouldn’t want someone to just be, ‘Oh, I’m thinking about you.’ I think it’s important that actions speak louder than words and to understand that even though we’re all alone right now, we don’t have to be alone; we can still do different things.”

Hummel said she was surprised by Frailie’s letter and the attention she has received.

“When I got [a copy of the letter], I honestly couldn’t believe it; it brought tears to my eyes just because I feel like, as a teacher, that’s just your job,” she said. “You’re just supposed to care about these kids and treat them like your own children and your family.”