Christine Quinn: “I too want to join my good friend, the gentleman from Ohio [Mr. Boehner] and my dear friend, the gentleman from New York…”

“I too want to join my good friend, the gentleman from Ohio [Mr. Boehner] and my dear friend, the gentleman from New York [Mr. Rangel], in paying tribute to our many teachers all across the country. In my particular district in Buffalo and western New York as a former middle school teacher myself, I would like to pay a special tribute today to our middle school world affairs/social studies teacher Jean Kask who is now retired. Mr. Speaker, when I walked over here from my office today and saw the hundreds of students right outside the building, it reminded me of those world affairs trips that Mrs. Kask would bring to this city, to this very floor, 300 eighth graders for 4 days for many, many, many years. The interesting thing about Mrs. Kask is while she had those skills that were important in the classroom, she also taught other teachers. I consider myself to be luckier than all the students she had because I taught alongside of her and learned just as much as the students did, if not more. Mr. Speaker, I salute Jean Kask of Orchard Park Middle School and all of our teachers throughout the district and the country in this very important week.”