As you walk into school in the morning, there’s someone who always has a smile on her face. She has all the answers to your questions, even if it’s 8:00 in the morning, during lunch, or randomly on main street. This person is Ms. Theriault. She’s the assistant principal for seniors and select juniors with the last names A-K, but she’s a friendly face for all.
Ms. Theriault has been here at RMHS for ten years but prior to RMHS, she worked all over Massachusetts from Peabody, to Charlestown, back to Peabody, and then to Revere. Before getting into education, she worked in the HR department in a tech company called “Abet”and Delta Dental in Charlestown, MA. She spent six years at the Higgins Middle School in Peabody, MA as a school counselor. Before coming to RMHS, Ms. Theriault spent seven years in Revere Public Schools as a vice-principal and guidance counselor.
Ms. Theriault was also in the military as a senior airman[in civilian terms]. She used to be obsessed with Air Force planes because of the movie “Top Gun” and even took flying lessons in the tenth grade. The obsession was so big that her ceiling looked like a “dogfight” due to the amount of airplanes she had hanging from it. She would just build, glue, and paint a whole bunch of them with her dad in their free time. She was enlisted in the Air Force from 1991-1996. But unfortunately, for her last base, she was placed on a base with no planes, just missiles. “I was like, this is cruel. Yeah–this is wrong and mean.” Her sergeant even tried to trick her into reenlisting. She said she responded to him by saying, “No. You’re trying to get me to sign on for four more years. It’s a nice try.”
Though she left the Air Force, she never shook her fascination with aviation. After many flight hours and intense studying, she earned her pilot’s license.
Early Years at RMHS
Ms. Theriault expressed that her first few years at RMHS were great but she had to adapt. She said she was used to ”students eating my lunch, wearing my clothes, eating my snacks, coming to me to see what I didn’t eat during the day so that they could have it after school. Kids emailing me all night long, like really needing support.” She noted that the students at RMHS treated her amazingly during her first years and that she wouldn’t change her experience at all. One of her fellow students Jason Walsh who also is in the Habitat for Humanity club said that his first impression of Ms. Theriault was ”she was very, very excited to be there. She seemed super excited to have us as new students, and I felt really welcome.” Another one of her fellow colleagues Ms. Callanan also said, ”Well, she was very welcoming when I got here. Remember, I had a different job when I first started. I wasn’t the principal. And so she took me around to the school and, like, showed me where everything was, um, and was really great and supportive when I started new in Reading.” Overall Ms. Theriault was a nice welcoming face to a lot of people around the school, she was a nice helpful hand to get anyone settled at the school.
Present Day and Other Passions
Now that Ms. Theriault has been at RMHS for ten years as an assistant principal there is a lot she has done and a lot of people she has impacted. After all the years she’s been here and all the people she’s met, she still said that her favorite thing about this school is the students. “I absolutely love working with students.” As an assistant principal, Ms. Theriault is in charge of discipline and if one of her students is in trouble she has to speak with them. Even though sometimes punishing someone can be tough, she spoke about the students, saying, “They’re so smart and so kind and make me laugh every single time. Even when they’re in trouble, they make me laugh. I’m like, you did what?” As challenging as her job can be sometimes she always cares about her students and wants the best for them.
In addition to helping students at RMHS, Ms. Theriault also loves giving back and helping the community and is now the advisor of the RMHS Habitat for Humanity Club. Back in 2019 Ms. Bailey (the advisor of the Habitat for Humanity club at the time) asked Ms. Theriault if she would be willing to volunteer as a chaperone for the annual summer trip the club takes to North Carolina to build houses. Of course, Ms. Theriault said yes. That was her very first involvement with the club–just as a summer trip chaperone. 2020 and COVID changed everything a little, and after school was mostly back to normal, Ms. Prey (a former Spanish teacher here at RMHS) took on the position as advisor of the club. Ms. Theriault continued with her involvement as a chaperone for the North Carolina trip, loving how much she was able to help and be a part of the club. After the 2023-2024 school year, Ms. Prey left, and there was no one left to run the H4H club. Ms. Theriault hated to watch this club have no leader, but she saw no way how she could be the advisor for the club on top of her normal job. Then some parents and students came to her and said they would help her run it so she went for it. She added, “And then I just took it and ran with it and I became obsessed with it.”
Ms. Theriault not only is a chaperone for the club’s next trip to North Carolina in July, she also runs and organizes the trip and the whole club. When asked about her favorite thing about Habitat for Humanity, Ms. Theriault answered without hesitation that the impact the club makes on people without even knowing it is what stands out most. “You never know who you’re going to meet down there, who you’re impacting and who you’re working with. It’s humanity. It’s cool.” When talking to any student in Ms. Theriault’s club you’ll hear about just how great she is. Senior Jason Walsh, the president of the Habitat for Humanity club spoke about working with her, saying, “She is very, very easy to work with and very on top of things. Before I even get a chance to ask her, she’s already done with something and it’s always nice to check in with her and know that we’re always on the same page. She is on top of everything.”
Besides being such a great leader and helping every student in this school and the Reading community, she also has some fun sides to her most people would not know. When asked to share one thing, Ms. Theriault revealed that a few years ago she found out that she had a brain tumor and had brain surgery to remove it. The surgery gave her three plates and eight screws in her skull, and that is actually why she no longer plays dodgeball against the students! Ms. Callanan shared, “She lives kind of up in the middle of nowhere. I don’t remember the town, but she always tells me that she has all sorts of turkeys, deer, coyotes and all sorts of random animals that she feeds. So they come back. Yeah, she likes nature.” Jason Walsh also shared that she loves wellness shots, and on the Habitat trip to North Carolina she and a bunch of the students enjoyed drinking them.
As anyone can see, Ms. Theriault is not only a huge part of helping RMHS run smoothly, she also is a key player in many students’ lives, ensuring that long after she leaves RMHS, her legacy will live on.
