Monday was a snow day for most Tulsa-area students, but it was much more memorable for the children who braved the ice and frigid temperatures to attend classes at Dove School of Discovery.
“She is, like, the first lady, and I was like, whoa,” said sixth-grader Triston Vasquez, 13.
Melania Trump brought her “Be Best” initiative to Discovery to promote children’s well-being and speak out against cyberbullying and opioid abuse. It was her first stop on a planned three-state tour that will take her next to Seattle and Las Vegas.
Dove School of Discovery, 4821 S. 72nd East Ave., opened in 2009 and currently serves 386 students in prekindergarten through sixth grade. It was selected as the site for Trump’s visit to Tulsa because it was named among 2018 National Schools of Character by the Character.org national organization.
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Dove’s network of public charter schools in Tulsa and Oklahoma City uses Character.org’s framework called the “11 Principles of Effective Character Education,” which is available free of charge.
“Character education is not always in your face, like a single lesson on respect. It is most effective, according to the research, when you integrate it throughout the curriculum and in the way you do things,” said Principal Maureen Brown. “You see a lot of group work here because students learn collaboration and being respectful of others’ opinions.”
The school the first lady would visit had to be kept top secret in advance, so Trump’s arrival about 9:45 a.m. came as a surprise to many students and faculty members.
“I actually thought it was an assembly for like the police or something like that, and whenever I came in, everybody was excited and telling me the president’s wife was coming,” said Triston. “I’m going to go home and tell my grandma I was right by her. It was very exciting; for the first time I met a very famous person.”
Student attendance was low because of the weather, but Brown said she did not want to represent Oklahoma poorly by having the first lady show up at a school with locked doors.
“We told parents to use their best judgment and only bring students if they could get here safely,” said Brown.
Prekindergarten teachers Tetsuko Yagami and Laurie Taylor combined their smaller-than-usual classes into one room, which was Trump’s first stop.
She was greeted by a very unbashful Amia Clelland, 4, who had a big tie-dyed bow atop her curly hair.
“I saw you on the news!” she exclaimed as Trump took a seat at a small table with three children.
“You saw me on the news? What did you see?” Trump asked.
“I saw you guys walking,” Amia said.
A couple of students asked Trump where the president was.
“He’s in the Oval Office working,” she replied. “Would you like to come visit some time?”
Trump also made stops in a sixth-grade science lab and a second-grade language arts class. She greeted teachers Kelley Fleming, Reenita Belyeu and Jessica Giesecke and then headed straight for their students.
In each interaction, Trump inquired about the students’ assignments and their ages and stressed the importance of collaboration and respect as she noticed that they were all engaged in group work.
Sixth-graders huddled around lab tables explained that they were testing different-colored salt solutions for concentration and density.
“So you have to use teamwork and work together?” Trump asked them. “It’s very important to do teamwork and you get along with each other and your peers.”
Afterward, Alexandra Ramirez, 12, said: “It was fun to just meet her, and she has a nice personality. She actually listens when you’re talking.”
Brown, who was alongside Trump as she toured the school and visited with children, said one interaction stood out to her from all others.
“One of our pre-K students asked the first lady if she knew Abraham Lincoln. I will never forget that one; it was great,” Brown said with a laugh. “She (Trump) had a nice little chuckle at that one.”
