By: Magdalene Ko, Editor-in-Chief
On Tuesday November 29, one of our own Mills teachers was hit by a car up the street from Millbrae Pancake House.
Although doing relatively well, Ms. Campbell suffers from a multitude of injuries, including small fractures on her spine and pelvic, some bleeding in her brain, and a broken tibia and humerus, both of which she needed surgeries for. The driver immediately called 911 and she was brought to SF General. Currently recovering in a rehab facility, she still does not know when she will return, but it is possible she will be out for the rest of the semester. Since Ms. Campbell taught Modern World History, AP United States History, as well as a law and society class, finding a long term substitute that can cover all subjects is more difficult.
Ms. Campbell’s desire is to do the best for her students while recuperating. She aims to work closely with her substitute, “especially when preparing students for the AP Exam and still honoring my commitment to complete the last of recommendation letters.” She hopes that she will still be able to “plan lessons, give audio lectures, and even grade some papers” once she’s feeling better, as well as returning for AP study sessions. Unsurprisingly, she worries about her students’ emotional, psychological, and academic health. Despite this, she is confident in the school’s support system, as well as the history department that “has an amazing group of teachers that collaborate and work together” so her “students will not be disadvantaged”.
The social science teachers are all working together to assist Ms. Campbell and her students, ensuring they will continue to learn in her absence. Mr. Lira, for example, has been facilitating all Ms. Campbell’s Canvas courses and communicating with her students. According to Ms. Campbell, “he is my right hand man and I could not do this without him.” He will even be grading all her end of the semester work, on top of all the papers from his own classes. Everyone, including the administration, is ensuring she and her classes are well supported through this challenge.
Yet all her students are extremely worried about their upcoming test and the rest of the semester. Their biggest concern, understandably, is the upcoming AP test and finals. Jun Zhang (11) stated “I feel really concerned about my AP test and not being fully prepared for it.” Another anonymous student explained finals and spring semester will be more difficult without Ms. Campbell “because she has taught APUSH for so long that she knows how to prepare students for the AP test.” Ms. Campbell’s wealth of knowledge comes in crucial in her lectures and study sessions, since she knows what is important to focus on. She skillfully adjusts her lessons to stay on track for the test and prepare her students. Gerome Guzman (11) articulated this feeling clearly, saying “Aside from worrying about Ms.Campbell’s health, I feel disappointed in not having her as a teacher. Despite all the work in APUSH I really did enjoy her class and her teaching because just by listening to her you can tell she knows what she’s talking about.” Aiden Chin (11) echoes this statement, that “Ms.Campbell prepared us a lot for the exams and without [her] it would be all the more difficult.” Hopefully, Ms. Campbell will still hold her special AP review sessions for this year’s class
Daily classes have also dramatically changed without a teacher. One student claimed the class was “highly unproductive” without Ms. Campbell. Many have taken advantage of the relaxed rules to be idle, such as playing games, socializing, or going on their phones instead of studying. As these two weeks are essentially just studying for finals, it is harder for students to stay on task simply because they have less material to complete. Even if the students are paying attention and doing their work, Robert Lee-Rubio (11) felt “understanding the concepts are a bit harder.” According to Chin, he might understand the ideas but “can’t ask her for the niche details which kinda sucks.” The history material itself might not be difficult, yet Harry Ahnn (11) points out “there may be a lack of complete detail when learning these concepts.” Megan Leung (11) mentioned that with APUSH’s immense amount of intricate information, Ms. Campbell was imperative in clarifying details, especially because “the internet sometimes gives confusing or contradicting answers.” Ms. Campbell is skilled at boiling down complicated events and clarifying confusing timelines for her students; now, they must wade through everything on their own. However, Cherry Zhai (11) believes “that my classmates and I are smart and able to face anything, even if our teacher can not be here to teach us.” Having Ms. Campbell to explain the lessons makes them much easier, even if the students do everything in their power to self study.
Another group closely connected to Ms. Campbell is the mock trial team. Since Ms. Campbell is their coach, they have now been scrambling to readjust without her. Katelyn Lam (12), the head prosecution attorney, revealed “It’s been extremely hard to continue without Ms. Campbell, since we’re all new to mock trial. We even considered canceling the BHS scrimmage, but decided to follow through because we wanted to make her proud.” Since Ms. Campbell’s accident was several days before the scrimmage, the team was unsure whether or not to continue through with their original plans, but Ms. Dove stepped in to support and supervise. Overall, many students were worried, and one of the prosecution attorneys Jessica Liu (12) admitted “I was very scared but we learned that school and mock trial were the first things she started worrying about right after recovery.” Ms. Campbell is truly one to be admired; even after being hit by a car she immediately began thinking about her students. She even called the mock trial team about a week after her accident to encourage them!
Currently, the team is working closely with Ms. Turek, who is stepping in for Ms. Campbell as advisor, and Cathryn Dalton, Ms. Campbell’s daughter and mock trial attorney coach, to continue with the season. Prosecution attorney Max Zaninovich declared “I’m really grateful Cathryn’s been helping us through all this. We’d be lost without her.” To practice for the upcoming competition in February, the pretrial prosecution attorney Christie Tjandra (12) said “I’ve created a pretrial mantra that I’ve been repeating in an attempt to memorize it.” Yuan Garcia (12), the pretrial defense attorney, detailed his strategy, that “I have been reviewing my cases, and practicing my arguing intensely.” For Liu, her approach includes listening to Ace Attorney bgm while reviewing the resources she was given. The team has been diligently meeting and practicing, continuing with their original game plan to compete. Everyone has been extremely supportive of each other and helping each other practice, determined to do everything in their power to improve.
Unfortunately, Ms. Campbell’s accident is part of an increasing number of pedestrian accidents not only in Millbrae, but across the country. Around 7,485 pedestrians were killed in 2021, which is an average of 20 deaths a day, a 12% rise from 2020. In California, 25.6% of all traffic casualties are from pedestrian deaths. There is no specific reason why these statistics continue upward, but factors such as being distracted by electronics, or simply not paying attention to surroundings contribute. Another interesting statistic is that since 2014, nighttime pedestrian deaths have risen 41%. Ultimately, it is crucial that everyone does their duty to keep others safe by being alert when on the road.
As Ms. Campbell recovers her health, her students must also work through their emotions. Leung stated she was “A bit sad because Campbell was a really good teacher and I really enjoyed her class“ when she heard the news. Cherry Zhai (11) summarized everyone’s feelings when she said “it was devastating to hear that Ms. Campbell was in an accident.” Zhang hopes that “Ms. Campbell can recover quickly and peacefully.” One of the most heartwarming messages came from Liu, who declared “we do not have to worry because Ms. Campbell is still our no. 1 hype man and she has our backs. We miss you Ms. Campbell!”
The details of Ms. Campbell’s accident are not public yet, but we hope everything gets solved quickly. In the words of Tjandra, Ms. Campbell is “a strong independent boss woman.” Regardless of her situation, she will do everything in her power to continue supporting her students, encouraging and helping them. Ms. Campbell, thank you so much for always thinking of us, even when you yourself are so injured. We wish you a speedy recovery and hope you come back soon!
