Purdue Polytechnic coach creates safe space and healing environment for students

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) —   WISH-TV celebrates extraordinary teachers in central Indiana with the WISH-TV Golden Apple Award.

The award comes with a trophy, $500 in cash thanks to our partners at Hensley Legal Group, PC, a school supply shopping spree to Teachers’ Treasures, and a surprise visit from the News 8 team.

• Nominate a deserving teacher for the Golden Apple Award!

April’s Golden Apple Award winner is Miss Liz Retana, but everyone calls her Coach Liz.

She’s a special education teacher at Purdue Polytechnic High School – Broad Ripple, where teachers are called coaches, because they coach students through school – and life. That includes the good moments and the tough ones.

Coach Liz is an Exceptional Learner’s Coach who does this with exceptional care. She also helped the school heal when something tragic happened earlier this year.

“Liz is one of those people that when you need emotional support, you go to her. Because she is so kind and generous with herself,” Laura Smith, the school’s operations manager, said. “She is probably the most compassionate person in the building. She loves every one of her students. She lives and breathes with them. She does things inside school, outside school, for them. I’ve not met anyone since I’ve worked in a school who gives more of herself to her students.”

Coach Liz goes far beyond her title as an Exceptional Learner’s Coach: Many people here say students would not graduate without her care and compassion.

Keeanna Warren, CEO of Purdue Polytechnic, said, “She’s just an incredible human being who loves deeply and understands the power of education and really understands the transformation that can happen when a student has the right educator in front of them.”

“She’s their safe person,” Laura Cope, chief of exceptional learners at the school, said. “When students are having a hard day, when they need someone to talk to, they see Liz out for sure. And so I think that just having her here in the building, someone that they know they can really trust and count on, is huge for our students.”

As students step into her classroom, they say a sense of calm takes over. The lights are low. The music is soft. The feeling lifts the stress of being a teenager.

“It’s a safe place because we are able to talk about our feelings and what’s going on at home, and we won’t be judged for it. She’s completely understanding, and she helps us calm down, and she helps us figure out who we are as people,” Brayden Hasan, 17, said.

He says Coach Liz helps students relax and refocus.

“She is a great teacher who gets to know and understand the student and tries to make them feel better while they’re in the school and helps them do their best,” Hasan said.

Kailey Rodriguez, 16, says Coach Liz also teaches them yoga. It’s a club on Wednesdays after school. Plus, she’s one of the track coaches, and she’s often the scorekeeper at basketball games.

“She definitely brings a light,” Rodriguez said. “I feel like she’s just the perfect balance of what a teacher needs to be.”

That balance was felt when tragedy struck earlier this year. In December, 16-year-old Robert “RJ” Williams went missing. He was autistic and one of Coach Liz’s students. In early January, his body was recovered from the White River.

“When we went through this tragedy as a school community, it was hard on everyone. It was really hard on her because she had a very close relationship with the student. For her to be able to show up so positively for everyone while she was hurting at the same time just shows her character,” CEO Keeanna Warren said. 

“She poured her entire being into making sure that the family and our students were supported through that crisis,” Laura Cope said.

Coach Liz was there for the search and rescue, and made a home base for the family. Her support continued when RJ’s body was found in January.

“She just immediately went into help mode, support mode for everyone, and just was just so incredible,” Warren said.

Coach Liz held a vigil and balloon release, and raised money for funeral expenses. She’s also keeping RJ’s memory alive with a scholarship fund. The fund is now at more than $23,000 dollars.

“All the students here are impacted by her in one way or another, whether they’re an exceptional learner or not,” Laura Smith said.

That’s why everyone at the school says she deserves the WISH-TV Golden Apple Award.

“Because she’s amazing, because there’s no one that brings such compassion and fire to the profession of education,” Smith said.

So, along with her family and Hensley Legal Group, PC, the WISH-TV team went to surprise her.

Personal injury lawyer Mitch Waldroup presented the $500 check to Coach Liz. Then she watched a video from her students and coworkers.

She asked, “Do people know what to do when this happens?” then added, “(I’m) overwhelmed, grateful, I do it for them (the students) – these are my guys. Thank you.”

Watch the video above to see the full surprise and hear more from Coach Liz Retana.

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