Toronto students mourn ‘school mom’
Murdered teacher was community pillar at Africentric school, where she taught for seven years
Estella Wheeler wasn’t just a teacher — she was more like the school’s mom.
She was often among the first to arrive in the morning at the Toronto District School Board’s Africentric Alternative School, keen to prepare for the day while listening to her beloved gospel music. She was always there for the kids, offering encouragement, advice and a shoulder to cry on. And she didn’t shy away from discipline — she had high expectations of students, pushing them to be the best versions of themselves. She proudly displayed their work in the hallway.
The cherished Grade 7/8 teacher was a pillar in the school community, which has been left reeling after her death. Early Wednesday, York Regional police arrived at the Vaughan home Wheeler shared with her husband. They found the 64-year-old with serious injuries and despite life-saving measures, she was pronounced dead at the scene. Her husband, Trevor Wheeler, 68, was arrested at the home and charged with second-degree murder. The couple has three adult children — two sons and a daughter.
A former colleague and close friend of Wheeler’s told the Star she was a “phenomenal woman,” both inside and outside the classroom.
“She was a devoted Christian woman who loved going to church, loved the Lord, loved her children, she was a people person,” said Charline Fearon.
She was also “fun-loving,” Fearon added, saying Wheeler loved to dance, sing and play games. Fearon and her husband would visit the Wheelers’ home every other Friday night, noting they were last there in late February when the two couples played cards at the dining table into the early morning. It was the last time Fearon saw her friend.
Wheeler’s death has left griefstricken students and staff at the Africentric Alternative School, where she taught for seven years, struggling with an immeasurable loss.
“Everybody’s displaced,” said Natasha Wright, a kindergarten teacher at the elementary school. “We don’t know how to process what’s going on,” she said, adding social workers and grief counsellors have been at the school to support staff and students.
“(Wheeler) was just so caring and gentle,” said Wright, noting children described her as “a mom, a social worker, a grandmother — all the adjectives of someone who goes beyond the call of duty.
“She was more than a teacher,” she noted, adding students, grappling with a myriad of issues, routinely turned to Wheeler for comfort.
Tamra Palmer Griffiths, who also works at the school as a lunchroom supervisor, described Wheeler as “a light.” Griffiths’ two daughters — Anastasia, 8, and Eden, 5, adored Wheeler, particularly her youngest, who doesn’t even go to the school. Because Griffiths is also the morning snack co-ordinator, she’s at the school very early in the morning and takes both girls with her. It was then that Eden, who is autistic and non-verbal, developed a special bond with Wheeler. Although Eden shies away from people, including family members, she was drawn to Wheeler. The little girl would greet the teacher with high-fives, draw pictures for her and visit her classroom, eager to see Wheeler and her collection of plants.
“It was really amazing to see because my daughter doesn’t go to anybody, but she had this special connection with Ms. Wheeler,” said Griffiths. “I’d say, ‘Let’s go see your bestie,’ and she knew who I was talking about. She’d get up and go straight to Ms. Wheeler’s classroom.”
One memory that stands out for Griffiths is when she delivered morning snack to Wheeler’s class. She found Eden and Wheeler seated by the window, listening to gospel music, sharing a quiet moment. “It was just so beautiful.”
Wheeler extended herself to all kids, said Griffiths, adding, “She was the school mom. She would discipline (students) but she loved and nurtured them and made sure the work that was done was their best … She knew these kids’ potential and did everything she could to develop it.”
The Toronto District School Board opened the school, on Sheppard Avenue West near Keele Street, in 2009. The aim was to promote a positive Black identity and ensure kids see themselves reflected in the curriculum and school leadership.
Former principal Luther Brown, who hired Wheeler, says “(She) was … a person who understood the importance of Black teachers working with Black young people, within the context of Toronto.”
It’s a comment echoed by current principal Hugh Reynolds.
On Tuesday, the day before she died, Reynolds said Wheeler took her students on a class trip to Downsview Secondary School, where many from the Africentric Alternative School head after graduation, to do a drumming performance. She never turned down the opportunity to organize a musical performance.
“I was told by the principal at Downsview that when her former students saw her, they gathered around her, hugging her all over just because of the person that she was,” said Reynolds.
She wore many hats at the school, he said, crediting Wheeler with starting the school’s “vibrant” student council two years ago. She met with students weekly and dedicated herself to planning new initiatives with them.
“She was always willing whenever I asked her to do anything — if it was to get her students to plan an assembly or go on an outing to perform at another school.”
On Facebook, former students wrote of how Wheeler was their favourite teacher, with one calling her “an absolute angel” writing, “She was such a kind soul who always made me feel so safe and happy in school.” Another noted, “She was there for me when I lost my step dad & always encouraged me to do so many things & taught me so much.”
As an experienced educator and someone who had earned the trust of students, Wheeler was also a mentor to fellow staff members, many of whom were new or early in their teaching career. She’d even stay up late at night with prospective teachers, helping them prepare for job interviews by doing mock interviews with them. She led by example and paved the way.
“(Teachers) could always depend on her for sound advice, and they would also always go to her to seek her opinion on whatever situation they were going through,” said Reynolds.
Wright, who started at the school a year before Wheeler, said the job can sometimes be tough. But Wheeler was dedicated.
“We’re not teaching just to teach — we’re saving lives,” said Wright. “It’s heavy lifting … We love it but it’s exhausting at times.”
Over the years, the two women often encouraged each other to find the strength to stay on. But Wheeler was set to retire this summer and spend time in Florida, where she had a home, ending a decades-long teaching career that began in Jamaica, where she was born.
With retirement on the horizon, Wheeler wanted this year’s graduation to be extra special, joking it was her graduation, too. She requested that this year’s yearbook have a page dedicated to each of the 13 Grade 8 graduates, whom she had taught for the past four years. It would feature each student’s own version of Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech, which they had been assigned to write.
“She wanted to make sure, especially with this yearbook, that when (students) look back it’s full of joy and memories,” said Griffiths, who’s helping put it together. “Now we will honour Ms. Wheeler … She will have a special page, too.”