Please help us celebrate and pay tribute to our retirees from the Pendleton School District.

Today, we congratulate Mr. EMOJI, aka Glenn Johnston, a science teacher at PHS.  Glen has worked in the district for 28 years. Watching the kids do lab activities will be what he misses the most. Glenn remembers a time when he and Brian Whitten thought they’d be biology teachers for a day and show the Teacher Advisory classes how to skin a mink.  Brian trapped the mink that was eating his dog training pigeons. About 5 minutes into the skinning process, Brian held the legs, and Glenn, the skinner, hit the dreaded anal musk gland. Oil squirted two feet into the air, instantly ending the “biology lesson” with kids gagging, coughing and exiting the room from the unimaginable smell.  Those same kids, now adults, still talk to Mr. Johnston about the “lesson” when they see him around town.

Glen owes a great deal to Professor Dr. Norm Lederman at OSU.  He was instrumental in making Glenn a teacher.  Being a teacher was never his intention as he started out in Engineering. After one summer working with the forest service, he went back to college wanting to finish as fast as possible.  Seeing all the science classes Glenn had already taken, the advisor at OSU said he could get a teaching degree in one year.  The rest is history.

Glenn’s words of wisdom: “Remember what Jesus said, ‘You need to forgive 7×70 times.’  We need to expect that kids are going to do something stupid, intentionally or not; we need to forgive them, move on and keep teaching.”

Thank you, Glenn, for your commitment to the students of Pendleton School District.  We wish you well on your next adventure.