Robin Lyn Fancy
School Librarian
IN THEIR OWN WORDS:
“I cannot understand how it makes sense to fund this drug testing program when we have failed to provide even the most basic educational services for Hawaii’s students. Teachers are the least likely group of people to have problems with drug use. I know I can speak for all of Hawaii’s educators when I say that we do not deserve to be treated like suspects. We deserve to be treated with respect.”
FULL BIO:
Robin Lyn Fancy is a certified elementary school teacher with over 20 years experience in Hawaii’s classrooms. Having spent most of her teaching career as a kindergarten instructor with an emphasis on language arts, Fancy was asked to serve as the school librarian at Lanai High and Elementary School in 2005. Passionate about the importance of reading to a successful education, Fancy accepted the position and began taking classes toward a master’s degree in Library Information Science. Regrettably, the librarian position at Lanai High and Elementary School was eliminated for the 2007-2008 school year due to lack of funding. Consequently, Fancy is currently on sabbatical, completing her masters degree at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.
“I cannot understand how it makes sense to fund this drug testing program when we have failed to provide even the most basic educational services for Hawaii’s students. Teachers are the least likely group of people to have problems with drug use,” says Fancy. “I know I can speak for all of Hawaii’s educators when I say that we do not deserve to be treated like suspects. We deserve to be treated with respect.”
Serving roughly 600 K-12 students, Lanai High and Elementary School is the sole school on the island of Lanai. With Fancy’s position now de-funded, these 600 students have been left without a single librarian and, in turn, without the critical skill-set a qualified librarian can provide. In addition to instilling a love of reading, a school librarian is tasked with teaching students both library and internet research skills to efficiently and effectively use information– each vital to success in higher education and beyond.
Fancy is deeply troubled that at a time when Hawaii cannot afford to fund such essential educational services, large sums of money stand to be diverted toward the random drug testing of Hawaii’s teachers. In Fancy’s 20 years of classroom experience, she has never witnessed a fellow educator in any way involved with drugs and bemoans the prospect of precious resources being frittered away on unnecessary measures.
Fancy has no quarrel with drug testing educators based on reasonable suspicion, nor with drug testing individuals whose on the job impairment would pose an extreme and immediate threat to the public welfare. In fact, Fancy willingly submits to drug tests in order to maintain her maritime captain’s license – she holds a license to captain 50 ton vessels, which she does on call for Trilogy Excursions.
Fancy is also the author of My Filipino Word Book, an illustrated primer on shapes, colors, numbers, and animals that uses scenes from the Philippines to educate students in English, Tagalog and Ilokano.
Scheduled to complete her masters degree this year, Fancy is unsure of her future, but hopeful that Hawaii will find the funds necessary to provide a librarian to Lanai’s 600 students – allowing her to return to her true calling.
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