In her forty-one years as a high school English teacher, Janet “Jan” Sutherland made a meaningful difference in the lives of thousands of students at Port Townsend (1956-61), Mercer Island (1961-67), and Bellevue’s Interlake and Newport High Schools (1967-1997). An outspoken advocate for high quality public education, Janet and her colleagues in Bellevue developed a district-wide Writing Competency Test that gave each student an individual profile of their strengths and weaknesses, to be used as a tool to guide their development as writers and thinkers. She wrote many articles on educational topics over the years and also served on the Bellevue Education Association. She opposed funding cutbacks for education throughout her career.
Janet died peacefully on May 9, 2011, leaving behind a rich legacy as an educator, an artist, a writer, and a lifelong working-class partisan and opponent of injustice. She will be missed for her generosity and talents, and for the calmness and humor that made hard times bearable and good times better.
To see an example of the many lives Jan Sutherland touched while at Interlake, check out the two pages of comments (below) that were left by her students.
Her obituary can be found here.
