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the glenview lantern | February 7, 2019 | 3
Short film details remarkable recovery of GBS teacher, coach Terry Harris
Neil Milbert
Freelance Reporter
During the Glenbrook
District 225 Board of Education’s
meeting Monday,
Jan. 28, members watched
a short film showing the
heartwarming tale of Terry
Harris, a 43-year-old special
education teacher and
baseball and football coach
at GBS, whose complete
loss of hearing in both ears
was restored through cochlear
implants at North-
Shore Hospital.
The implant stimulates
the cochlear nerve, which
controls hearing. One part
of the small electronic
device is placed behind
the ear; the second part
is implanted in the inner
ear, connecting the auditory
nerve that sends sound
impulses to the brain.
As a child in Michigan,
Harris was totally deaf in
his left ear and had only
partial hearing in his right
ear. A hearing aid enabled
him to lead a relatively
normal life.
He starred in football
and baseball at Watervliet
High School and then
at Elmhurst College before
achieving his goal of
becoming a high school
teacher and coach.
On Oct. 25, 2014, Harris
lost all hearing in his right
ear, leaving him totally
deaf.
“Nobody’s ever said,
‘Terry, at some point, you
are going to be completely
deaf’ Nobody’s ever said
that,” Harris says in a success
story video produced
by NorthShore University
HealthSystem. “But then,
just one day on a Saturday,
we were going to take the
kid to the park and, literally,
just like a light switch
just was turned off. The
little hearing that I had with
the hearing aid, just gone.”
“My only thought that was
going through my head was
how was I going to teach?”
Harris went to North-
Shore Hospital, just hoping
to have hearing restored in
his right ear.
Dr. Michael Shinners,
a NorthShore otolaryngologist
who specializes in
hearing loss and the person
who introduced cochlear
implants there a decade
ago, recommended Harris
undergo the implant procedure
in both ears.
Harris continued teaching
for about a month, then
took a leave of absence to
GBS special education teacher Terry Harris is shown in
the classroom in this image from a video by NorthShore
University HealthSystem. photo submitted
await the installation of the
cochlear implants in January
2015. His left ear was
the first to undergo the procedure,
with the cochlear
implant activated two
weeks later.
The film showed Harris
breaking into tears when
the implant was activated
and he experienced hearing
in his left ear for the first
time in his life. Then, another
implant brought back
hearing in his right ear, and
he now hears in a normal
range in both ears.
In the spring of 2015,
Harris returned to teaching
and coaching at GBS.
“I went into teaching because
as a young boy growing
up with hearing loss
and going through the education
system, it was about
the teachers that I had, and
[they] kind of ingrained
into me a growth mindset
and how to overcome and
compensate for my struggles
with hearing,” Harris
says in the video. “I knew
early on in eighth grade
that I wanted to be one of
those teachers.”
“It’s a journey that continues,”
Dr. Riggle told
Harris, who came to the
meeting with his wife,
Karin, and their son, Brady,
the youngest of their two
children.
“Your story is a testimony
to your perseverance.
You’re a tremendous role
model.”
Glenbrook D225 Board of Education
Officials trying to align GBS, GBN bus services
Plan would delay
start time at
Glenbrook North
NEIL MILBERT
Freelance Reporter
Students at Glenbrook
North will get an extra 20
minutes of sleep every
school day if a plan to coordinate
their First Student
bus routes with those of
Glenbrook South comes to
fruition.
At its Monday, Jan. 28
meeting, the Glenbrook
District 225 Board of
Education received an update
on the plan from Dr.
R.J. Gravel, assistant superintendent
for business
services.
Currently, the school
day at GBN begins at 7:40
a.m. and ends at 2:55 p.m.,
while GBS students’ day
starts at 8 a.m. and ends at
3:15 p.m.
“We’ve worked very
hard with First Student
on the high schools being
more independent from the
feeder districts,” Dr. Gravel
told the board. “Next year,
the high schools will have
buses independent of those
serving the elementary
feeder districts.”
District 225 has one year
remaining on its contract
with First Student and an
option to renew the contract
with the bus company
for two additional years at
the same price structure,
which is a 3 percent annual
increase.
According to Dr. Gravel,
exorbitant costs — estimated
to be up to $1 million
— had previously been
ROUND IT UP
A brief recap of Board of Education action on Monday,
Jan. 28:
• The board approved a payment of $3,518,882.84 to
cover accounts payable.
• Trustees also signed off on a payment of
$6,941,941.67 to pay District 225 employees and
a payment of $2,448.34 to reimburse the district’s
revolving fund.
the barrier to coordinating
bus schedules in a way that
would enable the school
days at each of the high
schools to be aligned.
But he said the plan he
and officials from First
Student worked out entails
“increasing the budget a
small amount, $35,000 for
the high schools.”
“We want to align the
schedules and have a
timely pick up, a timely
drop-off and a safe transportation
experience for
the students, and we think
we’ve achieved that goal,”
Gravel said.
Superintendent Dr. Mike
Riggle said realignment
would entail three steps:
1. Increasing the budget
slightly
2. Establishing the same
start and end times for both
schools
3. Considering changing
the schools’ start and end
times in the future
Riggle said the main
takeaway is “it will help
kids get more sleep.”
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