On the Road: A Tough Teacher’s Alter Ego

As part of the continuing series “On the Road,” Steve Hartman meets the students of St. Francis High School near Los Angeles

These students thought they knew everything about their math teacher, Jim O’Connor.

But what they found out at a local hospital taught them a life lesson.

The nurses say, Jim is the one they turn to in the toughest moments. They have called him in to sit with babies who are dying and whose parents are too traumatized to be present.

“No matter how sick they are, no matter how devastated, he’s just so caring, he brings such a warmth and peace,” said Jeri Fonacier, a nurse in a general medical surgery unit on the fifth floor.

“We see him and we say, ‘Oh Jim, oh thank God you’re here,'” nurse Rebecca Day said.

Jim O’Connor. What a true, real-life hero. What a Winner.

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