MADISON, Wis. – Hundreds gathered in Madison today to remember and celebrate the life of the late Badger Ridge Middle School principal Beth Steffen.
Steffen was killed two weeks ago when she was struck by a car while walking her dogs along South Syene Road around 6:30 a.m. on January 3.
Steffen is remembered by many as a gifted educator who was passionate about helping every student reach their full potential.
“Beth saw these little people with their own, you know, everything’s there, and then how do you just kind of guide it to help them be what they can be,” said Beth’s sister DeeDee Wolowicz about her students.
She started her career as an English teacher at Beloit Memorial High School. She then moved to Madison where she taught at La Follette High School, Edgewood High School and eventually served as the interim principal at Badger Ridge Middle School where she worked when she died.
Many of those who knew her have endless stories about how she touched the lives of the kids she taught.
“Her heart was huge,” said Beth’s brother John Oestreicher. “When she was at Beloit teaching, she had a student named Marnie who had done some things that were not great, and she had gone to prison. My sister would, once a month or twice a month, would take her son who was four and they would go to prison and visit Marnie and she would take books and literature.”
At Badger Ridge, there was Beth’s chair.
“They kept having this problem with the bathroom and she’s like ‘I don’t have a solution. I don’t know how to stop it,’” said Wolowicz. “So she would sit outside the bathroom so then these boys would have to behave themselves.”
The school quickly learned that Steffen could usually be found in her chair just outside the boys’ bathroom keeping everything under control. When she passed, students turned Beth’s now empty chair into an impromptu memorial to her, adding sticky notes and drawings.
Steffen was also passionate about social justice and politics. She worked on several campaigns and coached other educators on restorative justice. She loved Christmas lights and the ocean and went to the beach every chance she got.
Steffen is survived by her husband and two children.
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