a middle school principal was killed by a Mexican carrying only a Mexican drivers license and turned over to the authorities here yesterday. He and 4 others in the back of the truck were all illegals. She was a good friend of one of my friends.
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/pbcwest/co ... _0309.html
Western Pines principal killed in crash
By Rochelle E.B. Gilken, Rani Gupta
Palm Beach Post Staff Writers
Thursday, March 09, 2006
LOXAHATCHEE — The first and only principal of Western Pines Middle School was killed Wednesday morning on her way to work when her car was hit by a pickup in northwestern Palm Beach County.
Stunned parents, teachers and students remembered Margaret "Peggy" Campbell as a dedicated educator who stood up for her beliefs and took struggling students under her wing. Mrs. Campbell, who died four days before her 63rd birthday, had worked for the district since 1967 and served as principal of Western Pines since the school opened in The Acreage in 1997.
Principal mourned
"It's just so sad," said Schools Superintendent Art Johnson. "Most people retire at 30 years. She had 40. She loved what she was doing."
Mrs. Campbell was driving her white Subaru west on Pratt Whitney Road at about 7:30 a.m. when a Dodge Ram 1500 heading north on Beeline Highway apparently ran a red light and slammed into the driver's side of her car, said vehicle homicide investigator Victorio Fazzino.
Mrs. Campbell died at the scene. The truck driver and his four passengers were not injured, but all were detained for alleged immigration violations, Fazzino said.
The truck had Georgia tags and the truck's driver had a license issued in Mexico. It identified him as 30-year-old Cesar Mejia, but authorities have not determined whether it is valid. Mejia will be cited for the wreck, Fazzino said.
The crash happened in the far reaches of northwestern Palm Beach County, but a handful of people witnessed the accident.
Shortly after, word spread throughout the school and community.
Many remembered Mrs. Campbell as a caring individual whose empathy toward others stretched beyond the classroom.
Western Pines teaching assistant Cecilia Cassitty said Mrs. Campbell spent hours standing at the scene of a serious car accident in 2004 where Cassitty's daughter was thrown from a vehicle. Mrs. Campbell sent Caitlin — then a seventh-grader at the school — flowers and continued to check on her.
"That day was a blur, but it meant a lot," Cassitty said. "This brings back memories of that day, except we had a happier ending...
"My daughter was embarrassed to come back to school because of what she looked like, still scratched up and Peggy came out and hugged her and said, 'Come back. We miss you.' "
Caitlin found out about the crash at school when the district played a videotaped announcement after a day of testing. But many others learned about the tragedy earlier, such as Chelsea Mathews, 12, who heard the news from a friend.
"I thought she was kidding, but she wasn't," Mathews said. The seventh-grader said her teacher was teary-eyed, though "she kept trying to hold it in for the kids."
Grief counselors were at the school Wednesday and will continue to be available. Johnson said the district was waiting to hear the family's plans before scheduling any memorials.
Mrs. Campbell, who started as a high school social studies teacher in 1967, talked about retiring at the end of the year to spend more time with her grandchildren, ages 1 and 2, whose pictures filled her office, said her son, Jason Campbell, 32.
The school was her second home. She cried when the roof was damaged in the hurricane. And she gave special education students high-fives in the hallway.
Before taking the top job at Western Pines, Mrs. Campbell served as assistant principal of three Palm Beach County schools and as principal of an alternative school now known as the Gold Coast School of Choice.
Dorothy McKinon, the current principal of Gold Coast, said Mrs. Campbell enjoyed working with at-risk students. She remembered one boy who came to Gold Coast struggling academically. The student, who grew to call Mrs. Campbell "Mom," went on to college, thanks in large part to her encouragement and frequent phone calls to his home.
"She was a hands-on principal," McKinon said. "She was not the type of principal that stayed in her office." Mrs. Campbell's death came on the last regular day of standardized testing, an ordeal students said she had made bearable with raffles and gift cards rewarding students for their participation and daily announcements thanking them for studying.
"She would congratulate us every day on the intercom like we were adults and we were doing them a favor," said Brianna Trevino, 12, a sixth-grader.
Parents lamented that Mrs. Campbell's death came just one month after the principal of the neighboring Golden Grove Elementary, Barbara Altman, died of cancer.
Mrs. Campbell, who grew up in New Jersey, is survived by her husband, Bill; her son, Jason; and her daughter, Christie, 34, of Austin, Texas.
"We would like to focus on what she did with her school. It was such a big part of her life," Jason Campbell said.
Cassitty said that it's hard to imagine Western Pines without Mrs. Campbell.
"We have to be there for our students," she said. "It's what Mrs. Campbell would want."
