LARAINE FESS

 Changing Lives with a Passion and Heart for the Arts

story by KAREN SNYDER photos by SUSAN DELOACH

Local drama teacher LaRaine Fess understands the true impact the arts can have on a community. Her commitment to educate young people about bullying through her show “If You See Something, Say Something” is evident. In fact, it has led to her and her students from Beaufort High School being named the 2019 recipients of the “National High School Heart of the Arts” award from the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS). This honor follows earlier recognition by NFHS naming LaRaine and the Beaufort High School Theater Department as the “section winner” from among eight regions across the country. The national honor was received over state finalists from California, Illinois, Maine, Minnesota, Oregon, Texas and Virginia.

For LaRaine, a seven-time “teacher of the year” nominee, the theater arts are not only a form of enjoyable entertainment, but a powerful tool that can produce meaningful change. “I want to create an environment where kids are not afraid to use their voice to speak up,” she says, explaining the impetus behind the set of dramatic sketches she created as part of her anti-bullying production.
LaRaine and approximately 50 high school drama students first started performing the anti-bullying show “If You See Something, Say Something” seven years ago during October as part of anti-bullying month. In addition to performing the show for 6th graders in the Beaufort County School District, LaRaine receives requests regionally and statewide to perform either the elementary or middle/high school version of the show. Committed to the effort of helping students understand various forms of bullying and how to avoid being victimized, LaRaine and her students perform the show up to a dozen or more times per year.

“Each time we perform it’s a little bit different. It depends on the actors involved and the messages the students feel are important,” she explains.

The impact is far-reaching and includes performances for former SC Governor Nikki Haley, the National League High School Convention, regional conferences such as the South Carolina High School League Leadership Convention, Chapin High School and other venues as far away as Maryland. She estimates that the anti-bullying show has been seen by some 7,000 students. And, as a bonus outcome and result of her anti-bullying show, the Beaufort County School District now has an app available called “See Something, Say Something” where students can anonymously report incidents of bullying, harassment or intimidation.

Why bullying as her platform? LaRaine indicates it’s personal as her own son was bullied in 2013 as a then third-grader on the school bus. “When it happens to you, then you realize you don’t know what to do.” She jokes that simply placing signs such as “No Bullying Zone,” often displayed in schools and elsewhere, does little to curtail the problem.

“I feel as if it was almost a Divine intervention,” she states, reflecting on the reason she created the show. “You turn a negative into a positive. This is what I teach in my class every day. There are no victims here,” adding that she often asks her students, “Are you going to be victim or a victor? Which are you going to be?”

LaRaine says she picks the plays her students perform throughout the school year in much the same fashion. The message of overcoming obstacles is one that she says is important for her students to experience to prepare them for the real world. Says LaRaine, “Life is hard, and you are going to have problems. Are you going to succumb to them or overcome them?”

“Matilda the Musical,” based on the 1988 children’s novel by Roald Dahl and adapted by Dennis Kelly, which the students performed during the 2018-2019 school year, is the perfect example of choosing shows that empower young people.

“Matilda is about this girl who is in a family who doesn’t love her. So, she finds her love in books. She finds her answers in books. And in turn, when she finally goes to school, she finds her support in a teacher,” explains LaRaine. “So, Matilda takes the fact that she doesn’t have this love at home and turns it into something positive. She finds her own answers. That’s what you do in the arts.”
LaRaine continues, “You have so many kids nowadays who come from bad situations.” Rather than having them “sit and sulk in it, they need to find a way to get out of it.” According to LaRaine, involvement in the arts offers a way to find solutions, a supportive group of friends and others, and ultimately a way to solve problems. She proudly states that when the doors of her classroom close behind the students, her goal is to create a safe environment for them. “It’s okay in my class to be different, to have a difference of opinion,” she adds, “but I’m not going to let you argue and spit hate at each other. Instead, she reassures her students, “While we’re here, it’s okay to be different. It’s the differences that unite us.”

Explaining the importance of the arts in young lives, LaRaine reflects, “I’ve found in my almost 22 years of teaching, that students who are involved in the arts are able to handle life so much better because when you read or write plays, poetry, or sing songs you’re hearing how people overcame adversity. You’re hearing an explanation of why things happened. You acquire so much knowledge and start to develop tools and coping mechanisms in yourself,” she asserts.

Other skills that LaRaine says her students develop through participation in the arts include becoming “better presenters. You become more articulate with your words. You know how to express yourself. Ultimately, it gives you no excuses,” she adds, stating that there’s no room for victim mentality, referencing the lessons her students learn from shows like “Matilda.”

LaRaine, a native of Columbia, SC, is a 1995 graduate of Columbia College where she majored in general theater, speech communication, and elementary education. Her love of drama began in the fifth grade when she played a comedic role in a school play about the human body. “I remembered how it felt when the audience laughed,” she recalls. “At the end, we received a standing ovation. And, I remembered how good that felt,” explaining that her goal was to do whatever she needed to do to get that feeling again.

LaRaine explains that she was a bit unique in that she was both a “theater geek” and an athlete. “It wasn’t the typical either/or situation,” she says. She played both volleyball and basketball in high school and participated in the arts. After high school, she attended college on both a volleyball and theater scholarship. It was during her college years that she developed a love for children’s theater.

“Just watching those kids light up” when performing for children “is really what my love is,” LaRaine admits. So, it was no surprise that upon graduation, she became part of the full company of the Patchwork Players, from Lexington, SC, a professional touring children’s theater group. Realizing that her acting career wasn’t going to pay the bills, LaRaine began substitute teaching at Columbia High School where she later joined the faculty as a full-time teacher.

LaRaine met her husband David who was a Biology teacher and football coach at Columbia High School. However, upon getting married, the couple was told they would not be permitted to teach at the same school which ultimately precipitated their move to Beaufort in 2001. LaRaine taught drama at Lady’s Island Middle School for three years and coached varsity volleyball and speech and debate at Beaufort High School, joining the staff as a teacher in the 2005-2006 school year. LaRaine and her husband, currently a biology teacher at Battery Creek High School, have four children, Elijah-16, Christian-12, Matthias-10 and Sophia-8.

LaRaine says that being a wife, a mother of four, and a teacher keeps her quite busy. But in her quiet time alone she enjoys spending time with God and writing stories, poems, and plays. She is a member of St. Helena Baptist Church and also enjoys painting art and refurbishing furniture.

“I am not a perfect, none of us are. But I always want to have my heart and mind focused on being the best example I can be to my family, students, colleagues, and friends,” she adds. “My faith is my foundation and I am humbled and honored for all this recognition.”