Teacher Left Imprint on Hearts, Minds

Clustered around a brown folding table set up in a teachers’ lounge, a group of parents, children and staff members at Oak View Elementary School bowed their heads in a moment of silence.

The table served as an altar, adorned with multicolored roses and covered with a scrapbook full of letters and children’s drawings for Anita Garcia Lachenmeyer, along with a framed photo of the teacher many said they had grown to love.

Lachenmeyer, 39, coordinator of an acclaimed Ocean View School District bilingual program, died June 5, a day after she suffered a brain aneurysm. She was seven months’ pregnant with her third child when she died. The child, a boy, survived.

Monday night’s gathering was arranged by parents with whom Lachenmeyer worked as coordinator of Project EXCEL. The district program, which Lachenmeyer had coordinated for the last two years, aims to teach English to immigrant children, encourage their parents to become more involved in their children’s education and train district teachers to become bilingual instructors.

The community gathering, called by Oak View Principal Joan Buffehr, was aimed more at celebrating Lachenmeyer’s life than mourning her death.

Through letters, drawings and speeches, parents and pupils remembered Lachenmeyer as a dedicated educator who loved to dance, sing, laugh and talk about rainbows with the youngsters while helping them learn English.

“She was so wonderful because she gave all of herself,” said Ines Lopes Flores, mother of a first-grader in Lachenmeyer’s class. “She gave a lot to parents and children and others.” Flores added that her feelings were best summed up by a kindergartner whom she doesn’t know, Filiberto Flores (no relation).

Filiberto drew a picture of a rainbow with his teacher hovering over it, above which he wrote: “Mrs. Lachenmeyer is not gone. She is on a rainbow.”

Another mother, Gloria Nunez, said her daughter has had trouble sleeping since Lachenmeyer’s death. “We all loved her because she was a very, very good person here,” Nunez said. Soon after, Nunez asked to be excused, explaining, “I’m sorry, I don’t feel too good. We miss her so much.”

Irene Flores, a bilingual aide in Lachenmeyer’s class, was assigned to translate for the predominantly Spanish-speaking group gathered at Oak View on Monday night. But minutes into the memorial, she dashed out of the room, also overcome with grief.

Later, Flores recalled how the children loved to come to Lachenmeyer’s class, and how Lachenmeyer convinced parents that their children should go to college one day.

“She not only taught the children, she taught the family,” Flores said, a tear rolling down her cheek.

Some Oak View parents have scheduled a Spanish-language Mass on Sunday at St. Vincent DePaul Church in Huntington Beach in Lachenmeyer’s memory.

Several memorial services for the popular teacher have been held in the last two weeks. A prayer ceremony was held at St. Francis of Rome Church in Azusa, her hometown, a day before her funeral there June 8.

District officials commemorated Lachenmeyer’s work by establishing a college trust fund for her three sons--a 2-year-old, a 1-year-old and the newborn she never knew. She is also survived by her husband, Scott.