Kim Curlee, an Oak Forest High School substitute teacher for more than two decades, said shortly after she was diagnosed in November with stage three breast cancer, 60 students paraded into her classroom with roses, telling her they were there for her and they had her back.
“That’s how I started this journey,” Curlee said.
Just before surgery, a former student’s son brought her a homemade card, flowers and a teddy bear. When she lost her curly brown hair, her students were the first to encourage her to remove her baseball cap, telling her to “rock it” and that she looked beautiful.
As she lost physical strength, students started waiting by the school front door to carry her bags to her car. Curlee’s fellow teachers said they had never heard a teacher’s name called so much when they walked the hallways.
By April, Curlee’s home was filled with six stuffed animals, dozens of cards, her favorite candy, flowers and nearly $2,500 raised by student led initiatives across multiple programs.
Curlee said she has long believed if she wants to love what she does and love the students, she needs to get to know them, but she had not learned to receive that love and understanding until this journey.
As she returns cancer free to Oak Forest High School in this month, she said she has realized the empathetic power that high school students hold, especially when you believe in them.
“Don’t underestimate the power of the students of Oak Forest,” she said. “They are capable of so much love … they made the difference. They are the ones that set the precedent for me to walk through the school without a hat on.”
Throughout her journey, Curlee said she scheduled her doctors appointments so she could still be at school as much as possible, because the school community made it a safe place. Three student groups led key efforts to support Curlee and her family.
The choir club held bake sales at each of its three concerts, in the fall, at the holidays and in the spring. The choir students planned a culminating concert titled “Good Vibrations” to support Curlee and cancer awareness, scheduled for 7 p.m. on May 15 in the school’s main gym, 15201 S. Central Ave., Oak Forest.
Autumn Fuentes, a choir student on Curlee’s speech team, said she and her classmates were glad they could help Curlee and see her so happy. She said Curlee has affected her as a person by showing so much kindness.
“Just having someone around that’s like so nice and caring about everyone around you, it makes me a more caring person,” Fuentes said.
Key Club students overwhelmingly chose Curlee for its annual tradition of supporting a community member in need through a student-run fundraising competition.
Gary Andruch, the faculty club sponsor, said the competition had the highest engagement he has seen, with more teachers than other years getting classes involved.
“It’s a strong-knit school and community and when they see one of their own going through something, whether it was last year when a freshman was going through something, we’ve helped out our students and teachers or whoever needs it,” Andruch said.
Students in the school’s chapter of DECA, a business club, launched a T-shirt fundraiser to support Curlee. The website stated “every shirt represents not just support, but appreciation, love, and unity.”
Curlee, also a speech team coach, said the support continued even as graduation and prom approached.
She said she cried when two senior boy athletes brought her a card with a picture of them making a heart with their hands, and she told them crying was a good thing, that it meant she is human and they did the right thing.
“Think about this,” she said. “These are two 17-year-old boys. They’re graduating. They have prom on their minds and they’re thinking about a 59-year-old, soon to be 60-year-old woman who’s going through a mastectomy because she has cancer.”
Curlee said several students have lost relatives to cancer, and she was amazed by their support despite their own struggles.
Curlee said the key is to listen to students. She said she has learned that since the pandemic some students are afraid to graduate, and they need support.
Fuentes said she has also noticed her peers wanting more respect, understanding and support since the pandemic.
“I’m kind of like a mentor/grandma to them, and I’m fine with taking on that role because they need it, and I treat them with dignity, you know, and I establish trust, and it just goes from there,” she said. “I listen to their dreams, what they want for the future, but they’re a little bit afraid to jump into the world, and that’s something a little new.”
Curlee said she answered student questions about her diagnosis and tried to educate them about cancer, even inspiring some Advanced Placement biology students to consider pursuing a career in researching cancer.
She also said she received calls from her coworkers, telling her she inspired them to get mammograms. Curlee said she stopped getting mammograms during the pandemic and wish she had continued.
“That’s the other side of it, that, you know, brought tears to my eyes because I kept saying, I don’t care what age you are. If you’re 35 to 40 plus, you need to go get tested,” she said.
Curlee said as she returns to school, she is excited to celebrate with the students, attend baseball games and plan an end of the year event for the speech team. She said she might hand out pink ribbons to students.
“It’s going to be a tearful moment walking into the school,” she said. “I can’t wait to celebrate with them. … I can’t wait to go back and tell the kids and high five kids and say ‘I did it, we did it.’”
awright@chicagotribune.com
