A labor of love

Desiree Killgore has been with the Lawton Public School system since 2019, when she applied for a position as a personal care assistant. Now, she is a teaching assistant in the new horizons learning center in Lawton.

Killgore applied for the position after watching her late mother teach special education for 15 years. After seeing her mother’s passion for teaching, Desiree also found hers in special education.

“My mom was a special education teacher for 15 years. I saw her passion for it, and so I applied … I just absolutely fell in love with the whole program,” she said.

Killgore most enjoys working with four-year-olds due to their brutal honesty and their love for life and learning.

“I enjoy their brutal honesty, I enjoy that they’re so full of life, they’re so happy. It’s one of those really cool things, when they’ve been working on something, and it just pops, and they get it.” she said. “Just the pure happiness and joy that they get,” is her favorite part of her job.

Killgore’s primary role is to aid students in any areas they may be struggling, breaking down tasks to make them easier to manage for the little learners.

“They’re raw,” she said of the kids she works with every day. “They’re unapologetically just them,” she said.

Currently, Desiree is also attending Cameron University with a goal of teaching special education and eventually becoming an occupational therapist, specializing in young kids with autism.

Jazma Frazier has been with the Lawton Public School system for over 20 years, beginning as an IEP assistant and transitioning into a teacher’s assistant.

Currently, Frazier works in a special education classroom in MacArthur Middle School, with her focus being children with autism. Frazier applied to work as an IEP assistant while searching for a job that would allow her to spend time with her son.

“During that time, I was really just looking for something that would work about my son, because he was in school … I just fell in love with it. So I just stayed, and decided this is what I am going to build my career around.”

Frazier says that the biggest lesson she’s learned in education is to never give up, which she says she tries to demonstrate for her students every day. In the spirit of never giving up, Frazier says she is beginning her path back to school in the fall to eventually receive her teaching certification.