Elementary School Teacher

Ruth E. Rattan, a retired elementary school teacher, died of bone cancer Friday at Stella Maris Hospice in Timonium. She was 81 and lived in Phoenix. She retired in 1976 after a 36-year teaching career, which included assignments at Essex, Parkville and Padonia elementary schools. Ruth Elizabeth Keatley was born in Princeton, W.Va., and earned a degree in education from Concord College in Athens, W.Va. She earned a master's degree from the University of Maryland. An avid golfer, Mrs. Rattan belonged to Towson Golf and Country Club at Eagles Nest and to Spruce Creek Country Club in Daytona Beach, Fla., where she spent her winters.

Gun-rights advocates unveiled Tuesday a 225-page report paid for by the National Rifle Association that lays out a vision for arming teachers to prevent the kind of mass shootings that claimed 27 lives at a Connecticut elementary school last year. Drafted in response to the killings at Sandy Hook Elementary, the report calls for the creation of a 40- to 60-hour weapons training course that would prepare teachers or administrators to carry guns and confront possible shooters — ideas that drew a mixed response from Maryland officials.

A Montgomery County elementary school teacher was charged Thursday in Baltimore County for possession of child pornography, police said. Lawrence Joynes, 54, of Dundalk, teaches music at New Hampshire Estates Elementary school in Silver Spring, according to the school's website. Montgomery police will be investigating whether Joynes committed any offenses in that county. A spokesman from the school system did not immediately respond to requests for comment Friday morning.

Clara Mae Boender, a retired reading specialist and elementary school teacher who taught for 54 years, died of multisystem organ failure Jan. 12 at Howard County General Hospital. The Ellicott City resident was 86. Born Clara Mae Crouch in Baltimore and raised in the Paradise section of Catonsville, she was the daughter of Harry Crouch, a Baltimore & Ohio Railroad worker, and Ruth Crouch, who founded the Kinder Kraft Kindergarten, a school located in Catonsville and later Ten Hills.

Marguerite Theresa Petersen, a retired Baltimore elementary school teacher, died of congestive heart failure Jan. 11 at Union Memorial Hospital. The West Baltimore resident was 89. Born Marguerite Theresa Page, she was the daughter of Dr. George C. Page, a physician, and Marguerite Jones Page, a homemaker. Raised on North Mount Street, she was a 1940 graduate of Frederick Douglass High School and earned a degree at what is now Coppin State University, where she also taught at its demonstration school.

Agnes Mullen Coale, a retired Baltimore County elementary school teacher and an assistant principal who also mentored young educators, died of kidney failure Jan. 9 at University of Maryland St. Joseph Medical Center. She was 90 and had lived in Mays Chapel Village. "Agnes was a bubbly, upbeat, vivacious person who had a positive outlook," said former Baltimore County school Superintendent Robert Y. Dubel, who lives in Glen Arm. "She related well to her fellow teachers and knew every child she ever taught by name.

In her 22 years at Johnston Square Elementary School, Janice Shelford has spent more than $15,000 of her own money at the Dollar Store and Staples for school supplies for her students. But as of Thursday, she and dozens of other teachers will be heading to a new supply store whose impact on their classrooms will be priceless - literally. Johnston Square served as the launch site of the Wish-List Depot, a nonprofit organization that set up a free store where the school's 24 teachers, and eventually 54 others from three neighboring schools, can stock up on classroom supplies at no cost to the schools or the teachers.

Ethel May "Mickey" Gilliss, a retired elementary school teacher, died Sept. 18 of cancer at the Blakehurst retirement community in Towson. She was 88. The daughter of a businessman and a homemaker, Ethel May "Mickey" Rankin was born in Buffalo, N.Y., and moved with her family to Salisbury in 1939, where she graduated from Wicomico High School in 1942. She was a 1944 graduate of the old St. Mary's Junior College, now St. Mary's College, and from what is now Salisbury University, where she earned her teaching certificate.

An Under Armour online competition to showcase female athletes drew 10,000 contestants over 10 weeks and ended with four winners from across the U.S., including a Baltimore elementary school teacher who coached girls at the school to complete a one-mile run. Kaitlin Loftus, 30, who will be starting her eighth year as a teacher at Edgewood Elementary School in West Baltimore, found out Wednesday afternoon that she was among four finalists in Under...

Steven Robert Hardy, a Harford County public school educator whose career spanned more than four decades, died June 13 of cancer at his Bel Air home. He was 64. The son of a real estate salesman and a homemaker, Mr. Hardy was born and raised in Havre de Grace. After graduating from Havre de Grace High School in 1965, he earned a bachelor's degree in elementary education in 1969 from what is now Towson University. He completed his graduate studies in education administration at Morgan State University and had earned a master's degree from Loyola University Maryland.

Editor: I am writing in response to Mr. Flen's letter to the editor published on Feb. 24. My daughter is an elementary school teacher and I know that she and her colleagues do not work 70 percent of the time! That may be what they are paid for, but that is not what they work. If you drive by any Harford County public school, you will see cars there well before the school day begins and also after the day ends. Teachers spend several hours before and after school preparing their lessons.