Austin school remembers a teacher as more details emerge from the investigation of her disappearance in Nepal.
Dahlia Yehia reportedly was killed in August while working in Nepal.
Dahlia Yehia was one of the cool teachers.
Earlier this year she took her teenage students on a trip to Graffiti Park at Castle Hills, for which she asked them to bring cans of spray paint and had them add their own designs to the wall. Even though it was raining at the time, the students loved the project.
That field trip is what Mary Brinkman, principal of Wayside Schools Sci-Tech Preparatory, remembers the most about the 25-year-old art teacher, who was reportedly slain in Nepal last month.
Yehia arrived in Nepal in July, reached the resort town of Pokhara, Nepal, on Aug. 4 and was killed three days later, Nepalese authorities have said.
She had been invited there by 30-year-old teacher Narayan Paudel to participate in an earthquake relief support program, The Himalayan Times reported.
Yehia was sleeping when Paudel allegedly beat her to death with a hammer. Authorities believe the motive for the
killing was money.
Paudel told police he dumped Yehia’s body in the Seti River in Nepal, said Nepalese police official Hari Bahadur Pal. Police are still searching for her body.
Paudel confessed to the crime on Thursday, after being arrested Wednesday, Pal said. Authorities plan to seek the maximum sentence of life imprisonment for Paudel, but they need the body to help build a strong case, Pal said.
Sci-Tech Preparatory spokeswoman Bailey Bounds said students and staff have responded with “sadness and an outpouring of love” after learning about Yehia’s death Friday.
Yehia worked at the school, teaching grades seven through 11, from January to May and resigned in July, Brinkman said.
According to her LinkedIn page, after she graduated from her Kalamazoo College in Michigan, she taught art at a school in Phoenix and later worked with children in Boston before moving to Austin.
About a year after graduating, Yehia wrote on her blog, “I still haven’t found what I’m looking for, and that’s how I want it to be for a while.”
Yehia was from Michigan, which is where her family lives. Reached via email, the family declined to comment while the investigation is ongoing.
Sci-Tech Preparatory employees and students are dedicating a wall in the school to her, which they will fill with pieces of her art and other memories, Bounds said. Students asked to wear white shirts Wednesday in her honor, and Brinkman agreed.
“She had a knack for being with teenagers,” Brinkman said at a press conference at the school Tuesday. “That is something that we really value, because it’s not always easy to be with teenagers. And she really enjoyed the self-expression that students were giving her in class.”
“They were producing incredibly beautiful artwork,” Brinkman added. “She was very encouraging — because artwork is a risky business, you’re putting yourself out there — and she was very encouraging to the students to be confident and proud of what they were doing and to share their art with others.”