Veryfine Student

English 1101
Lyons Townships best
Its Friday night and the halls of Lyons Township High School are
anything but quiet. Its the night of their popular Black out basketball game
school rivalry at its best. The kids of the Lyons Township Business
Management club are hard at work, taking and yelling out ordersa chaotic
scene but nothing out of the ordinary. Jeremy Vrtis, one of two very
dedicated club sponsors, grins widely as he describes the club as a lot of
awesome chaos and the greatest club of everything. Sporting a Blackout
game T-shirt, a full beard, and a charismatic smile, he stands at the back of
concession stand as he watches his students interact with each other.
Theres yelling, laughter, running about, and at times the noise level makes
anything inaudible. It would take a kind, patient, and caring person to put up
with this much chaos and thats just the kind of person Jeremy Vrtis is.
Technically speaking business management, or biz for short, is a club
in which students work at the concession stand during home football and
basketball games, bringing in the biggest amount of fundraising money for
the school and providing 35,000 dollars for scholarships every year. Vrtis
face lights up as he gives his own definition of biz, we are a safe place for
kids to be themselves. Im very proud of the fact that we are the most
diverse club of the whole school. We have people of different sexual
orientations, we have transvestites, we have Michael taking off his
clothes. He laughs as he directs his attention toward a student that
decided to dress up in drag and another who was removing one of his shirts,
we have minority students, we have special ed students, all who have
been integrated in our club equally and fully. Before he continues a bit of
worry creeps up onto Jeremy as he pulls out his phone and begins to reply to
a text message. Im checking where Katie is. Shes been having a rough day
and Im just kinda checking on her. The little things he does are part of the
reason a passing student might be influenced to yell out Mr. Vrtis is the best
teacher EVER or his co-sponsor, Frank Lenertz, to say that they dont make
teachers like him anymore. Throughout his time at Lyons Township Jeremy
has established a bit of a reputation, the kind where if a student has his
blessing they are free to do as they please. Getting his blessing is another
story however, only the trust worthiest of kids are allowed that privilege.
Not every student knows me because I deal with a very small population,

but every staff member knows me he proudly declares with a giant smirk on
his face.
One would think that such a dedicated faculty member would have had
the teaching career path in mind since childhood, but that wasnt the case
for Jeremy. During his freshman and sophomore high school years he was
determined to be an auto mechanic but after getting his first job at an animal
hospital he decided that he wanted to be a veterinarian instead. It wasnt
until the very last day to change his major during his first semester at
Northern that he decided he was going to be a math teacher. Jeremy
describes it as truly one of those moments when the sun shone down,
angels aaaaaaaaahhhh he mimics angels singing and flings his arms
around, like this is your path. This is what youre supposed to do. Besides
meeting my wife and knowing I was going to marry my wife, and holding my
child and knowing the wonderfulness that is knowing that is my child, that is
the third time of like this is what Im supposed to do with my life, and it
happened before those two. Ever since then Im like Im supposed to be a
teacher, this is what Im supposed to do. I want to teach. Im a teacher, I
teach kids, this is what I do. With that being said, I think very little of what I
teach is math. I teach them acceptance, treating others well.
Teaching acceptance is to be expected out of someone as kind as
Jeremy. Outside of school Frank Lenertz describes him as one hundred
percent father and devoted husband and anyone that knows Jeremy will
agree. Any talk of his wife and beautiful daughter, Gracie, and his face will
glow as the smile upon his face grows larger and larger. Im a husband and
then Im a dad. Thats my life outside of there. Im never going to forget
when my daughter was born. I cried for like days, I was just holding her and
cried. The whole first week was just me crying. He cradles an imaginary
baby and reminisces of their first days together. His love is not just reserved
for his family; its unequally shared but shared nonetheless with his students
as well.
At LTHS there is a section of the school entitled the alternative school
in which students with emotional or behavioral disorders, that wouldnt
normally feel supported in a regular classroom, are placed. Generally these
students are stereotyped as the trouble makers and many teachers shy
away from teaching them. Jeremy views the alternative school students as
one big family, not trouble makers, and enjoys teaching them. He goes
above and beyondgoing as far as helping all his seniors apply for
community college and get their financial aid in order.

On March 8th 2012, Jake Mitchell, one of his students from the alternative
school was sent home with a head ache and later slipped into a coma and
bad seizure. He was not recovered since. Jeremy Vrtis stepped up and has
been helping out the Mitchells in any way that he can.
His voice lowers and a solemn expression takes over his usually happy
face, it was just one of those things where you kind of see the situation and
you go somebody should do something, somebody should do something, I
should do something. He pauses and potential tears fill up his eyes but he
glances over to the student near the cash register and attempts to lighten
the mood up a little bit, Its funny because as Im talking to you about this
Im going oh my god, I hope that we dont run out of singles
Jeremy soldiers on and continues to talk about his student. As a father
he can only imagine the pain that Jakes parents must go through as they
watch their son lie unresponsive in bed. I want him to come home, I want
the Mitchells to be able to tell their son they love him and have him hear that
and have him respond back to it his eyes gloss over and he looks up at
the ceiling as if hoping gravity would help him hold the tears back. All of his
alternative school students are very much dear to his heart because he
views them as one big dysfunctional family but a family nonetheless. He
thinks of the lively and healthy Jake, the kid with the very shy laugh and the
kid whod like to flirt with girls to help him cope. Even though there are
things that dampen Jeremys kind and free spirit, he still remains his cheerful
self. As he scurries away to help his students close up the concession stand
he says, one of the things I like best about teaching is watching my kids
grow up. Watching my seniors grow up and become adults. It makes me very
proud and its just been fantastic.