Middle School Honors Legacy of its Namesake, Christa McAuliffe
Students and staff at the Los Alamitos Unified campus reflect on the legacy of the pioneering educator on the 40th anniversary of the Challenger disaster.
Forty years ago, New Hampshire high school teacher S. Christa McAuliffe captured the attention of students nationwide as the first educator to be part of NASA’s Teachers in Space Program.
Tragically, McAuliffe and the other six crew members aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger never completed their mission on January 28, 1986, as the orbiter exploded shortly after launch.
McAuliffe Middle School in the Los Alamitos Unified School District is marking the anniversary by shining a light on a teacher whose enduring legacy continues to inspire students.
“For our school, this is more than a date in history; it is a time to honor the memory of an educator and pioneer whose name we proudly bear,” Principal Eddie Courtemarche wrote in a message to families. “This week we are dedicated to keeping Christa McAuliffe's legacy of learning and exploration alive," Courtemarche added. The campus is the only school in Orange County named after McAuliffe. (Full disclosure: I am the parent of a McAuliffe student.)
Students from the school’s Associated Student Body, Link Crew, and the California Junior Scholarship Federation (CJSF) club worked together, and under the guidance of their teacher and advisor Jennifer LeTourneau, to create ways for the entire campus to commemorate McAuliffe.
On Jan. 28, students delivered special messages during morning announcements, led a moment of silence, and contributed to a video that was shown in classrooms. They also created and staffed an interactive legacy wall featuring hand-drawn posters sharing McAuliffe's story where students added their own reflections in response to questions that paid tribute to McAuliffe’s values. Students were asked what legacy they want to leave at McAuliffe and they were also able to complete this sentence: “Curiosity means ______ to me.”
During lunch, dozens of sixth graders crowded around the legacy wall, scooping up the paper cutouts of astronauts and stars to write their responses. “Curiosity means to me everything that I want to learn,” read one. “Be bold. Never give up,” wrote another student. “Not to be afraid of exploring,” wrote a third.
Students wrote handwritten messages reflecting on what legacy they want to leave at McAuliffe and what curiosity means to them.
“A lot of kids don’t know why we’re named McAuliffe,” eighth grader Emmy Kim said between speaking into a microphone to share facts with her fellow students about the school's namesake.
Emmy said that she and her fellow organizers wanted their peers not just to learn about McAuliffe, but to "look inside themselves" and reflect on how her story made them feel. The student leaders opted for an interactive experience, Emmy explained, arguing that would be more impactful than just putting posters up around campus that students may not take the time to read. “We’re giving them the opportunity to teach themselves something," Emmy said.
“This day was entirely student driven, and that was very intentional,” LeTourneau, a seventh-grade English teacher, said in a press release from the district. “Students didn’t just learn about Christa McAuliffe, they took time to really think about what her legacy means to them and how they want to carry that forward in their own lives.”
Statewide, seven schools are named after McAuliffe, according to the California School Dashboard. The Los Alamitos School Board voted to rename Pine Middle School after McAuliffe in February 1986, just a few weeks after the Challenger disaster. According to a report in the Los Angeles Times about the vote, some students surprised board members by speaking out against the name change, arguing they were "excluded from the decision-making process." Names suggested by students included: Redwood Middle School, Los Arboles Middle School, and Rancho Los Amigos Middle School.
Speaking with students on the McAuliffe campus 40 years later, it appears the name choice is making an impact. “It’s cool that we can learn about the legacy that [McAuliffe] left, her curiosity and determination,” sixth grader Sadie Wagner said after adding her responses to the legacy wall. “If our school wasn’t named after her, we may not know about her.”