POCATELLO — First-year Irving Middle School Principal Tonya Wilkes has a passion for teaching students the importance of virtues and a sense of belonging and looking out for one another. It was forged in tragedy.

    Wilkes had joined the teaching staff at Pocatello High School in 2005 after many years at Blackfoot High. As the fall session of 2006 began, she had Cassie Jo Stoddart and Torey Adamcik in one of her classes. She had taught Brian Draper the previous year. When Stoddart was murdered while house-sitting for an aunt Sept. 22, 2006, Wilkes said a shock went through Pocatello High. Things turned even worse when Adamcik and Draper were arrested and charged with her murder within a matter of days.

    “Everyone just looked at each other and wondered ‘Who can we trust?’” Wilkes recalled. “It was terrible.”

    Not someone to ignore a challenge, Wilkes made it her business to restore faith among students and faculty, and push the importance of good communication, caring and human virtues. It’s a quest she carried with her when she became assistant principal at Irving five years ago.

    Irving has the highest percentage of students in the district who qualify for free and reduced hot lunches — an indicator of the social-economic status of many families the school serves. Irving Middle School is also the district’s main Developmental Learning Program, or DLP, for students with physical and mental challenges.

    With Wilkes and last year’s principal Susan Pettit working together, the middle school started implementing programs to boost the student’s appreciation of each other and pride in being a Bear.

    At a school pride assembly last year, DLP students gave a presentation and explained their perspectives to the entire student body.

    “You could have heard a pin drop,” Wilkes said.

    Pettit left Irving to take the helm at the new Alameda Junior High this year and Wilkes took over at Irving. She had some new challenges to face. Five teachers followed Pettit to Alameda and with other moves within the district, Wilkes had 11 new teachers, a new registrar and assistant principal in her building.

    And the number of sixth-graders attending Irving nearly doubled as the district eliminated sixth grade from all its elementary schools.

    “We had some challenges,” Wilkes said. “We needed to preserve that positive outlook.”

    Wilkes decided to expand the virtues program and bring new flair to the unification effort at the school by having students wear school colors of red, gray or white every Friday. She also reached out to the community for support and found a willing donor in Advantage Plus, which provided matching school color T-shirts to every student and staff member at the school, including cooks and custodians.

    Everyone donned the matching shirts for the first time Friday. The front of every T-shirt had the word “Perseverance” printed on it.

    “The big thing is making everyone feel a part of it,” Wilkes said about the move toward unity of purpose. “It’s good to have positives.”

    In addition, Irving will continue to expand its social skills program and have students explore the meaning of virtues like generosity, hope and resilience, according to Wilkes.

    “I think we have a really good start on what the culture’s going to be here,” Wilkes said.