This year’s teacher appreciation week was highlighted by a marriage proposal. (Jarek Rutz/Delaware LIVE News)
EastSide Charter School teacher Sinead Johnson thought she was being brought into the auditorium Friday to receive an award to cap off teacher appreciation week.
Instead, in front of her first-grade class and about 30 family members and friends, her boyfriend Keith Rawlings Brown got down on one knee, held out a diamond ring and proposed.
Tears of joy bolted down her face as she said yes.
Sinead Johnson
“This has been a journey for us both and it was tough keeping this secret from my love but seeing the look on her face from the surprise was more than I could ask for,” Rawlings Brown said.
The couple, both 32 years old, have been dating for two years, but have been close friends since they met in college at Tuskegee University in Alabama.
Johnson has worked at the Wilmington charter for three years, and many of her students –holding strings to mylar balloons that looked like engagement rings, and signs that said Yes and Marry Me – were crying, too, out of awe and happiness.
Rawlings Brown is a small business owner of his own trucking company.
“I knew it would mean a lot to Sinead the way I planned for it to be at her school and involve her students because she cares so much about them,” he said. “It brought her and a couple of her students to tears. They love her as much as she loves them and her rapport with them is very inspiring.”
Aaron Bass, EastSide chief executive officer, said this is absolutely the best teacher appreciation moment at any school.
A class of first graders celebrate their teachers joy. (Jarek Rutz/Delaware LIVE News)
He seemed to really enjoy alerting the media to the proposal, making them swear to keep it a secret and making them promise they wouldn’t do a story unless Johnson gave permission.
She said yes to that, too.
“This literally is the greatest thing you could ever do for a teacher,” Bass said.
Raised in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, Jarek earned a B.A. in journalism and a B.A. in political science from Temple University in 2021. After running CNN’s Michael Smerconish’s YouTube channel, Jarek became a reporter for the Bucks County Herald before joining Delaware LIVE News.
