‘We love you, Mr. Mike!’ Columbus school mourns the loss of beloved custodian
Sometimes the lesson that needs to be taught in the classroom wouldn’t be on a test. Sometimes the lesson is about what happens when the topic of death seeps into a school.
The 300 students and staff at Fox Elementary School faced that challenge this week after “Mr. Mike” died when he was hit by a train.
Michael Davis Sr. was this Columbus school’s lead custodian for only one year — but from listening to Fox family members, the positive impact he made there will last a lot longer.
Breaking the news
When principal Yvette Scarborough heard the news around midday Wednesday, she contacted the Muscogee County School District central office, which sent to Fox a crisis team of about two dozen officials, comprising 16 counselors, several social workers, superintendent David Lewis and region chief Terry Baker.
“This district was tremendous with the rapid response of that crisis team and the continued support even today,” Scarborough said Friday. “… I’m less equipped to do this than anything I do for the school.”
The crisis team first took care of Davis’ family, including his son who is a fourth-grader at Fox. Next, the staff was assembled to hear the news and receive counseling if needed. Scarborough notified parents and guardians via a recorded phone message. Then they planned how to talk about the tragedy with the students the next day.
The crisis team returned Thursday and set up counseling rooms in each hallway for students and staff. Scarborough visited with students in their classrooms.
“I had to be the mama,” she said.
And she didn’t sugarcoat it.
“We shared the facts,” she said. “We just shared the truth of what happened and that we’re all sad.”
Scarborough summarized her message to the students: “It’s OK to be sad. It’s OK to have these feelings. But we’re here together; we’re a family; we’re going to take care of each other.”
She insisted on using the word “died” instead of a euphemism.
“You can’t say it in a less way or a different way for kids because they don’t understand those different terms we might use,” she said.
Scarborough also didn’t say how Davis died — just “an accident” — but she did answer questions about the accident if a student asked.
“We’re just taking guidance from the experts in the district and kind of just following our heart,” she said. “… As long as you’re sharing in a loving way, we can’t go wrong with that.”
Reacting to the news
The reactions among students ranged from crying to seemingly no effect at all. One student told Scarborough as she left the classroom that she likes her earrings.
Some of the older students were “pretty upset by it,” she said, “because he had great relationships with them. He was more than just our custodian.”
Davis took care of all the students as if they were his children, Scarborough said.
He would set up the packs that are filled with food for 220 of the school’s 360 students to take home for the weekend. They call them “blessing bags” at Fox. When it was time to do that task without Davis, four students got “a little teary eyed,” Scarborough said, so she took them to counseling.
Another way Davis’ absence was felt came among the prekindergarten students who used to sing him a song they made up each morning in the cafeteria during breakfast.
One of the lines: “We love you, Mr. Mike!”
Scarborough explained why.
“He always had a good word for you,” she said. “He was smiling. He did his work with pleasure.”
Even the “yuckiest” parts of a custodian’s job wouldn’t ruin his mood, Scarborough said.
“He was happy to do it because he knew what it meant,” she said. “He knew that education and learning could take place. He saw his role as improving our school and improving lives of children every day.”
Students have written cards and made banners expressing their condolences to Davis’ family. They also are thinking and researching ideas to create a memorial in his honor, she said, “to put some action behind our grief.”
At the heart of the North Highland neighborhood, Fox serves as a community center, with a Boys & Girls Clubs branch and a MercyMed location at the school.
“We even had parents come in yesterday who needed support,” Scarborough said. One of them had witnessed the accident and sought counseling at Fox.
“We don’t just take care of the kids at this point; we’re taking care of the entire community if they need us,” she said.
Davis did more than “just sweeping the dirt,” said assistant principal Anne Philips. “He took it beyond that. He became so engaged with the children.”
Percy Armour, the Boys & Girls Club unit director at Fox, added, “Male or female, all of them looked up to him because he always had a positive thing to say to all of them.”
Davis also wouldn’t hesitate to say corrective things as well.
He cautioned students against running in the hallway and pointed out when shoes needed to be tied. And to a misbehaving student he would say, Armour recalled, “Yo, little man, we don’t do this in school.”
Then he would report to Phillips that he had handled the situation, sometimes preventing students from fighting.
“Just very caring, very sincere,” Phillips said. “We talked quite a bit about the word of God, talked about training up a child.”
Praise from parents
While walking their children home from school Thursday afternoon, Amber Baughcum and Melissa Nieto said they appreciate the phone message they received Wednesday from Scarborough so they could be prepared to answer their children’s questions.
They said Scarborough clearly explained what happened to Davis and how the school is dealing with the aftermath, including grief counseling for any student who needs it.
Nieto said that message helped her have a meaningful discussion with her children about Davis. She told them, “Remember the good things, that he was kind and respectful, and keep that in your heads and your hearts.”
Her 8-year-old daughter, third-grader Sheyla Lagunas, said Davis was “always nice to everybody. He liked talking to everybody, saying good morning and stuff.”
In fact, Baughcum said, whenever she had to drop off her two children at the school early, Davis would let them in and warmly greet them.
“He was wonderful,” she said. “He loved these kids. These kids were his pride and joy, all these kids in this school.”
Davis went beyond his regular duties as a custodian.
“Even though he wasn’t certified — he was a janitor — he was always there to comfort the kids and stuff like that,” Baughcum said.
He went out of his way to help Nieto the first time she visited the school. Instead of just pointing her in the right direction, he took the time to escort her.
“I was kind of lost at first,” she said, “but he showed me around the school.”
So in addition to how to grieve, another life lesson was evident at Fox this week, Scarborough noted.
“No matter what the job you are here to do,” she said, “you do it with kindness, you do it to the best of your ability, with a smile on your face.”
MEMORIAL SERVICE
A memorial service for Michael Davis Sr. will be Jan. 25 at 4 p.m. in Cusseta Road Church of Christ, according to Progressive Funeral Home.
HOW TO HELP
An account was created by Davis’ wife, Shaquana Rutherford, at GoFundMe.com to help Davis’ family. In addition to his wife, David leaves behind five children. As of Friday afternoon, $1,590 from 30 donors had been raised toward the $5,000 goal.
