Shaun Davis began her "life" with alternative education in Fall River Joint Unified as the six-hour aide for one of our continuation high schools. In her four years there, she kept things afloat through four different teachers and a year of long-term subs. In 2000, she accepted the position as secretary for the six alternative education schools in our district. For Shaun, however, the word "secretary" was a huge understatement right from the beginning. She quickly became the anchor that steadied the fleet, and we would be adrift without her.
What Shaun gives to CDS goes far beyond anything that can be found in her job description. She spends countless hours with our students in whatever advocate roll they need: advisor, mentor, tell-it-like-it-is disciplinarian. She is also a surrogate mom, often explaining, "I'm telling you exactly what I would tell my own children." On the practical side, Shaun will do anything from covering a class at a moment's notice to keeping a student with her who is having a particularly tough day. On the personal side, there seems to be no end to her caring, and all she does, she does quietly and without fanfare. She just sees a need and fills it. To the hundreds of students whose lives she has touched and those of us lucky enough to work with her, Shaun is a true hero.