When most Bowie students think about Elaine McBrearty, they think that she’s a hall monitor notorious for dress coding female students. However, many students don’t know that McBrearty’s job encompasses more than just dress coding and she does more for the school than that.

When Bowie was first being built in 1988, McBrearty applied to do clerical work for the school, as she had 12 years of clerical experience from working in a power plant in San Antonio.

“When I came in, they said that Mr. [Kent] Ewing was bringing in all the office people, so the only thing available would be a monitor,” McBrearty said. “I had never heard of it, and they told me that ‘all the kids are gonna hate you’. I thought that maybe eventually there’d be a clerical position or something come up, so I hired on and I’ve been here ever since.”

McBrearty has stayed as a hall monitor since then.

“30 years ago, kids were so wonderful and respectful, they respected the building. It was a fabulous place to be, kids were amazing, teachers were great, I loved to come into work for years,” McBrearty said.

McBrearty has been able to watch the school, students, and teachers change as she’s worked here.

“I think because of technology, kids don’t socialize like they used to,” McBrearty said. “I’m not saying that kids don’t talk to each other now, it’s just not like they used to. I used to never have kids that are as disrespectful as most are now. At the same time, however, we have many wonderful and polite kids who are great.”

McBrearty’s job is to enforce campus rules that the principal creates. This includes dress code, hallway etiquette, and behavior inside the classroom.

“I’m not the dress code Nazi from Hell,” McBrearty said. “The principal wants me to help kids follow the rules, and that’s the only reason why I do it. I feel like if there are other campuses that don’t make students follow the rules then that is the reason is out of control. This campus has always been under control.”

Not a lot of students understand that McBrearty doesn’t create the rules, she just enforces them. McBrearty runs into a lot of disrespectful students while simply just doing her job.

“I’ve raised two daughters and they would never be disrespectful to any adult, I know for a fact that when I run into kids who are disrespectful, when they are at home they have serious problems,” McBrearty said. “We have to have rules in place, and there has to be consequences.”

However, McBrearty says that teachers have mostly been polite and appreciative of her.

“Elaine is a great coworker, she is my savior sometimes, when I need help with a student,” Spanish teacher Kelly Tagle said. “She always backs me up, I think that’s the thing we as teachers appreciate so much,”

Despite the disrespect she faces on campus, McBrearty still thoroughly loves and appreciates her job.

“It’s exciting to see kids be successful, even sometimes when you see kids who travel the wrong path and then get back on track, with teachers and counselors and everyone helping them, to be successful and maybe a year or two later they’ll stop by the campus to say thank you,” McBrearty said.