Zelene Blancas, a first-year teacher at Dr. Sue A. Shook Primary School in El Paso, Texas, died on Monday, her family told CNN. She was 10 years in her career as a teacher.
“She was like my Wonder Woman,” said Blancas. “She was my backbone and was like my second mother, even though we are only four years apart.”
The way she lived her life and how she spread a message of kindness to her students and everyone around her is how her family wants to remember Zelene, he said.
“Even though she is sometimes a bit of a difficult teacher … she always looked on the bright side,” said Blancas. “I didn’t know until now, but she was a walking angel.”
Zelene Blancas leaves behind her parents, Gloria Luna and Victor Blancas, her brother and her niece, Natalia. Her babies were her two dogs, Rocky and Chico.
She taught her students to be kind
Chavira said he remembers when Blancas captured the video just before the November 2018 holiday. The video showed a line of students saying goodbye to a classmate, having chosen a hug, a handshake, a high five or a punch on the wrist.
“This was her class every day. It was nothing she did special or something new,” said Chavira. “The culture in her classroom was very caring, very loving. She taught her children to be kind to each other and to really look at each other as a family.”
The video was a glimpse into the kind of classroom environment that Blancas promoted and represented who the teacher was.
“That alone was her,” said Chavira. “This alone shows the culture that she created in her classroom.”
Blancas was a bilingual teacher and most of his students were learning English, Chavira said. Some of his students were new to the country and others to the field. It was up to Blancas to make parents and students feel at ease.
“Teachers do more than teach,” she said. “The success she had in her classroom, with her students, with her families, was because she had that passion to make a difference and go beyond the academy for students”.
Blancas was the first to help new colleagues and the first to help those in need, Chavira said.
“We are all suffering because we know the great future that lies ahead,” said Chavira. “She was a brilliant star. Our community, our students, her family, don’t have that smile, that love, that warmth that she contributed.”
Chavira said you could see Blancas’ passion “the moment you met her”.
She spread love and kindness with pink socks
This passion spread throughout the world in Blancas’ many tweets about his students, his classroom and his work with a non-profit organization designed to spread kindness.
Nick Adkins met Blancas on Twitter in 2018 when he saw the video of his students hugging and leaving the classroom.
The idea is that whoever wins the pink socks becomes part of the mission of spreading love and empathy and Blancas “lived the ethos of giving gifts every day,” he said.
“Zelene Blancas was the best in humanity,” wrote Adkins. “The ripple effect of love and kindness that she has placed on the universe teaching her children over the years is immeasurable.”
Blancas lived the mission and his legacy is the mission, Adkins wrote to CNN.
“Ms. Blancas and the entire team and students at Shook are what we all must strive for every day, every moment. She lives in the love she taught and spread, ”he wrote.
Pinksocks Life raised the money and donated 1,337 pink socks to the school, Adkins wrote on a blog.
“Her idea was basically to promote kindness because lately there has been a lot of bullying, so she wanted to turn that around and make those students change and believe in kindness,” said her brother.
Blancas said his sister was working on a passionate project, which he hopes to bring to light. She was writing a children’s book and had already drawn the illustrations, he said.
It was his sister who also inspired Blancas to become a teaching assistant and follow in his footsteps, he said.
“She was a mentor to me in a personal and professional way,” said Blancas. “Thanks to her, I will follow her legacy and I will be a teacher.”