UFT Admin
- Retired teacher
“When I’m with Ms. Lockhart, it’s always an adventure.”
Those words — spoken by a 5th-grader at PS 57 on Staten Island as part of a May 2011 article in the New York Teacher — sum up the life of Patricia Lockhart, who died of cancer on Nov. 1 at age 63.
Patricia, a science teacher, environmental activist and former chapter leader at PS 57 before she retired in January 2023 due to her illness, touched countless lives through her work and deeds.
“She was an exceptional chapter leader and a truly good person,” UFT District 31 Representative Shawn Ramos said.
As a single mom, Patricia began her career at PS 57 in 1988 as a paraprofessional and became a special education teacher at the school after achieving her associate’s, bachelor’s and master’s degrees while on the job. She eventually became a general education teacher and finally a STEAM teacher.
Patricia started numerous initiatives at the school. Whether it was teaching her students to care for the wetlands behind the school at Eibs Pond Park, leading the school’s robotics program or rekindling Soap Box Derby competitions on Staten Island that spread throughout New York City, Patricia was a force.
She encouraged her students to be environmental activists.
Under her guidance, her students planted flowers and vegetables, built small, solar-powered machines, recycled, collected two-liter plastic bottles for building a greenhouse, and wrote to pen pals upstate at a partner school under the auspices of Green Connections, a program in which the students served as stewards of the New York watershed.
Patricia and her students implemented ways for their school to save electricity. For two years in a row, the school placed third in the citywide Green Cup Challenge for greatly reducing a month’s worth of Con Edison bills. They won a $15,000 prize for the school.
Patricia organized camping trips and outdoor treks during which her students explored waterways on canoes and tested water and soil samples.
“These urban children love nature when they’re exposed to it,” Patricia, who was also PS 57’s grant writer, said in the 2011 New York Teacher article.
She was often recognized for her efforts, winning many awards, including an Above and Beyond Award from the UFT on Teacher Union Day 2019 for using the Soap Box Derby initiative to teach STEM students about engineering and teamwork.
Patricia served as a representative for the UFT Staten Island Political Action Committee and was also an activist in her community.
After a student’s baby brother fell to his death in 2000 from a window at the nearby Park Hill Apartments, Patricia worked to get federal grants to not only install safety gates in the building, but gates that could be easily opened in the event of fire. She then started a campaign, with child lobbyists in tow in Albany, to push for making such gates mandatory throughout New York City.
In 2005, during a trip she made to Liberia to understand the issues facing PS 57 students hailing from the then war-torn nation, Patricia came across a 5-year-old boy named Boimah while she was transporting sick and injured people by truck to a hospital. Boimah had tuberculosis and had been left under a tree to die. His only hope was surgery in America — so Patricia brought him home.
Boimah attended PS 57 while he awaited surgery the following year, in February of 2006. Boimah died of complications due to tubercular lungs a few days following his surgery. Patricia returned to Liberia to bury the boy she hoped to adopt, and then established a foundation on Staten Island in Boimah’s name to benefit Boimah’s home town in Liberia.
Boimah had often prayed for the safety of another child from his town named Yatta. After his death, Patricia reached out to Liberian orphanages to search for Yatta and decided to adopt her after finding her. Now all grown up, Yatta Johnson works as a paraprofessional at PS 57.
“Having Patricia Lockhart as my mom is the best thing that has ever happened to me,” Johnson said. “She taught me to always be kind to everyone because you never know what someone is going through and how your kindness might change their day.”
Johnson added that Patricia’s “selflessness will always be instilled in me because she always went above and beyond to make sure she helped everyone around her no matter what it took. I am so grateful to have been able to experience life with such an amazing person.”
Besides Johnson, Patricia is survived by daughter Dana Lockhart; a granddaughter, Lara Lockhart-Scammardella; and siblings Bruce Copp, Brian Copp, Bradley Copp, Mary Lee and Brett Copp. She was predeceased by her father, Bruce Copp, and mother, Grace Copp, a former teacher at Susan Wagner HS on Staten Island whom Patricia called the “inspiration” behind her teaching and activism.
Pat and I were friends in the mid-1980s, just before she started working at PS 57. We dropped out of touch for many years, but met up again at a Staten Island diner several years ago after I’d read an article in the S.I. Advance about one of her many accomplishments. I knew today (January 7) was her birthday, so I did a Google search to try to find her contact info, which I had misplaced. That’s how I discovered the sad news. We knew each other for a short time, but she had a lasting impact on me: She was a beautiful soul, a loving mother to her children and a cherished teacher to her students, with a heart of gold. May she rest in peace.
Lockhart , was the students’ own personal Rock Star . She made teaching exciting, fun , & inspiring for all the young minds at PS 57 . She will forever be remembered as a dedicated loving teacher, a caring friend, and colleague. Pat was so involved in creating, changing things for the better , one heart at a time. God bless you Pat , you made a difference! Fly peacefully with the angels. Love your friend & colleague Florence
I had the privilege of working with Pat on several union initiatives. I learned a great deal from her and will miss her insights and advice. Her loss will be felt by many.
Lockhart, as so many of us called her, was a force of nature. Once she set out to accomplish a goal it was either get out of her way or get onboard. She was so caring and full of love. The longtime chapter leader at PS 57, it was a privilege to work with her as the humanitarian and unionist she was. I miss her.