Gilbert is back in the classroom where she belongs
In January 2008, 16-year-old Angel Facio stabbed Elgin High School teacher Carolyn Gilbert. She survived, but was seriously injured. Facio talked recently for the first time about attacking his teacher. Daily Herald Staff Writer Kerry Lester previously wrote a three-part series about Gilbert and her physical and emotional recovery. You can read the 2009 Gilbert series here. Below is some of the paper's earlier coverage of the attack.
Carolyn Gilbert's classes these days are in a state of controlled chaos.
On April 2, her sewing and fashion merchandising students sponsored the biggest fashion show in Elgin Area School District U-46.
Students were charged with creating and modeling at least one garment for the show, handling advertising for the event, and renting tuxedos and prom dresses from local stores.
On one spring morning a few weeks before the show, Gilbert is standing at a table in the middle of her classroom. Sewing machines hum around her.
#8220;This should have been sewn as a seam,#8221; she tells sophomore Nichole Ramirez, who's making a green and blue silk halter top with embroidered butterflies.
#8220;The next time you decide to take something in,#8221; she says gently, #8220;let's do it the right way.#8221;
Ramirez nods and heads back to her machine to fix the top, as Gilbert goes to help with another project.
It's been more than a year now since she was attacked by one of her students. More than a year now since she lost her right eye.
#8220;It doesn't bother me,#8221; Gilbert says of fielding questions about how she's doing. #8220;There was this girl that was in my lunch duty. She'd just become a student, and she realized I was #8216;that teacher,' but she talked real intelligently. She was mature for her age.#8221;
The student, Gilbert said, wanted to know if she was comfortable coming back and if she thought the school was safe.
#8220;And I said, #8216;Yeah, it is. It was an isolated incident. You could go to 30,000 schools and it could happen anywhere.'#8221;
Gilbert's actions in the classroom show that she's not bluffing. Her computer is set up to face the window, not the door. She doesn't glance over her shoulder as she teaches. She doesn't jump when sewing students approach her with scissors or seam rippers.
Still, some events can't help but remind her of that January day.
At a recent lockdown training for Elgin High staff, her principal, Dave Smiley, made a point to sit next to her.
#8220;I couldn't figure out why he decided to sit next to me,#8221; she said. #8220;And then all of a sudden someone produces a box of Kleenex.#8221;
District Safety Coordinator John Heiderscheidt used the attack on Gilbert as an example during the training session.
#8220;He always referred to me but never said my name. I knew what he was talking about, and that was hard,#8221; she said. #8220;That was the only time I ever fell apart at school.#8221;
Since last summer, when she collected her things, Gilbert hasn't gone back to the classroom where the attack happened. She rarely goes down that hallway unless she has to.
A few weeks ago, Gilbert had to venture near her old classroom, Room 103, to see a colleague in the school's computer room.
#8220;I didn't look at my (old) room. I didn't look inside,#8221; she said. #8220;I just went into the computer lab and then left.#8221;
This January, during the school's final first semester exam, Mike Gannon, the teacher who'd saved her life, came into her room to check on her.
#8220;He was close to tears,#8221; Gilbert said. #8220;But I told him, #8216;I'm OK.'#8221;
Like Gannon, several colleagues, along with Heiderscheidt, checked up on Gilbert that day, as well as Jan. 18, the anniversary of the attack.
#8220;They saw me, covered in blood, screaming. And that had to be a horrible experience for them,#8221; she said. #8220;I didn't see myself.#8221;
Gilbert went home that night and told her daughter how lucky she was to be at the school.
#8220;I'm just so grateful to have people like this always looking out for me. It's like I have guardian angels everywhere,#8221; she said. #8220;I'd never pick anyplace else to teach.#8221;