Sometimes, all it takes is one person to set you on a path.
For Pam Clawson, the new Assistant Principal for Grades 10-12 at Sto-Rox Junior/Senior High School, it was one student.
“I’ll never forget him.”
Clawson encountered a boy with autism during her student teaching days in Oil City, in the mid-1990’s.
“I just always felt connected here.”
- Pam Clawson, Assistant Principal for Grades 10-12
“He really pulled me in,” she explained. “He was in Kindergarten, but he was there all day. He really had a true IEP (Individualized Education Plan). He really opened my eyes to special education.”
That encounter kick-started a career that took flight at Clarion University of Pennsylvania, by way of Johnstown. Clawson became part of the staff at Allegheny Valley School, working with adults with intellectual disabilities. Eventually though, public schools would come calling.
“I came back to the public education sector through a research project with Fox Chapel that was looking at the effects of inclusion on students without disabilities,” she said. “My interest was always kids that needed extra support.”
Clawson attained her masters degree in Special Education from the University of Pittsburgh, and did some substitute teaching. Then, came a fork in the road.
“It was between two jobs, at the (Allegheny) Intermediate Unit for alternative education, or emotional support here in the (Sto-Rox) district. It felt more of a fit to be in a school district in a community, and that kind of started it.”
As Clawson explains it, “I just always felt connected here. It’s something you can’t really explain, but connected to the kids and the community, and although there are challenges, it draws you in and makes you want to keep doing more and more.”
Clawson has spent the last 16 years in the Sto-Rox School District, from the former middle school to the Primary Center where she taught third grade. The last year was one of transition, working as the Virtual Vikings Cyber Coordinator and moving to the Junior/Senior High School. It’s a transition that affirmed her recent ascension to her new role.
“Seeing those faces of kids I had in third grade now in high school? This is why I’ve been here.”
Her time in special education informs how she’s approaching this new role. Clawson said it comes down to helping students make the right choices.
“They’re on the verge of becoming - they’re young adults - you know what I mean? Ready to enter the world, they’re still kind of discovering who they are, but on that cusp, and just helping them get there? That’s what teaching is all about.”
It’s a lesson she learned with the help of a young boy in a classroom years ago that still rings true today.
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This is one part of a three-part series on the new leadership team at Sto-Rox Jr./Sr. High School. Next week: Dr. Kim Price, Sto-Rox Jr./Sr. High School Principal