Health reason forces Dallas ISD's "Animal Man" to leave the classroom for good

CBS News

30-06-2025

Harry Monroe has been an educator for 51 years. He spent 33 of those with the Dallas Independent School District. Now, he's leaving for health reasons.
It may not be the retirement chapter Monroe envisioned, but he lived to see it. For that, he's grateful.
"I consider myself the last of the dinosaurs," Monroe said.
The 78-year-old has been a science teacher in the Dallas Independent School District System for 33 years. He taught at the former Colonial Elementary School in South Dallas, now MLK Elementary School.
He landed a dream job at Dallas ISD's Environmental Center in Seagoville.
The road to Dallas ISD started in his hometown of Kingfisher, Oklahoma, after Monroe got his Master's degree.
Kingfisher is about 40 minutes northwest of Oklahoma City. Monroe taught in the Houston area. The science teacher said he was about to sign a contract when he pursued the job in Dallas in 1992.
Over the years, he's come to realize something.
"Some of these kids are just very fortunate if they make it to school in the morning," he said. "It was a rude awakening."
For those who did make it, they got to know the educator in room 506, who was called "The Animal Man."
"I'm always using animals in my lessons," he said.
Nobody knows his love of critters than his wife, Henrietta. The 74-year-old recalled the morning she was vacuuming until there was a discovery under the table at home.
"There was a gigantic spider, there was a turtle, there was a, I think it was a snake," Henrietta Monroe said.
The animal discovery that morning was just beginning.
"And I think the one that scared me the most was this gigantic hissing cockroach," she said.
According to his wife, the two had an interesting conversation about notifications and critters that morning. She is supportive of his love for animals, but his wife offered him some seasoned advice.
"I told him that he had to think of himself first, that his health was very important," she said. "And retiring might be the thing for him, but I wanted him to know that that was his decision. Because I wanted him to feel comfortable making the decision himself."
Monroe, who prided himself on opening systems to inner-city students, started to feel a decline in his system. It became worse than not feeling 100%. He got medical attention and found out he had transthyretin amyloidosis, or ATTR.
"Now, what this medication will do — it's not going to get rid of it. It will slow it down," Monroe said. "It will stop the progression of it."
ATTR is chunks of flawed protein, making it hard for the heart to pump. Monroe said he and his wife joked about him dying in devotion to the classroom and students. He did not want to make that happen literally.
"It's supposed to keep you from dying and to reduce your hospital visits," he said.
So, as much as he wanted to continue, Monroe began cleaning out his room. He adopted out his snapping turtles, silky Chinese chicken, guinea pigs, and the axolotl.
In the meantime, his wife began helping him sort a museum of teaching tools and artifacts from globes near a stuffed bobcat, Columbian mammoth fossil remains, posters, and boar skulls.
"And it's kind of hard; I didn't sleep very well last night, thinking about that," Monroe said."You know, men are not supposed to cry, but I'm pretty emotional right now. I don't know whether I'm going to cry or not."
All of the packing was happening on the day Monroe had his final chance to be a showman of science to a group of energetic kindergartners.
"I realize this is the last class that I will teach here at the Environmental Ed Center," he said.
Monroe followed the script of his system, teaching the kids and removing their fear by exposure.
"How they fit in in the environment, that everything is part of the system," he said. "And I would explain that, basically, I'd be talking about the importance of them being around."
Now, the time has come for him to go home with Henrietta, his wife of 31 years. She has even softened on allowing creatures into the house. Monroe mentioned Bobwhite quail.
"I would accept a cockroach or the spider, the turtle, whatever he had out there," she said.
His wife said her husband spent so much time in the classroom that she knows the science teacher will need a period to adjust to retirement.
"Just the thought of actually retiring, it still bothers him," she said. "And I can understand that."
Monroe plans to stay in touch with coworkers and even return to visit. Much of his time, though, will be spent with family and loved ones. It's a new system he'll get used to.
Room 506 bids farewell to its keeper of more than three decades.
"I'll just say thanks. It's been a good part of my life," he said. "How many people get to do a job that they enjoy?"
Animal man, out.