'It made me not think about me,' principal says of job that helped her through cancer

By Kristen Forbes

The Beaverton Valley Times, Aug 6, 2009, Updated Oct 30, 2009 (1 Reader comment)

Kristen Forbes / The Beaverton Valley Times

GRATEFUL – Hiteon Elementary Principal Linda Schattauer, who is retiring after 19 years with the Beaverton School District, says the kids and staff at Hiteon were a lifeline for her as she battled colon cancer.

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As Hiteon Elementary Principal Linda Schattauer retires from 20 years in education, 19 years with the Beaverton School District, and five at Hiteon, it’s clear the occasion is bittersweet. She’s looking forward to spending more time with her husband, also retired. She’ll be able to visit more with her parents, who live in town. There will be more time to catch up on her reading, quilting and traveling.

But for Schattauer, saying goodbye to the kids and community at Hiteon is no simple task. It was this community, and these kids, who got Schattauer through some of her toughest days.

When she was diagnosed with colon cancer in August 2007, Schattauer could have taken a medical leave of absence. Instead, she had surgery, took a brief period of time off, and came back to school and worked, even through six months of chemotherapy treatments.

“I never even considered a leave,” Schattauer says. “I just knew that I had to have surgery, which I did, and that I was going to take five or six weeks off. I certainly could have taken more time off, but coming back to work was what kept me going — knowing that there’s another purpose for my life. I didn’t want cancer to become me. It was just something I had that I was going to deal with, but it wasn’t something I was going to let ruin my life.”

Not getting a colonoscopy, Schattauer says, was the one way she neglected to take care of herself.

“I waited until I was 56 to have one and unfortunately, it caught up with me. I learned a good lesson from that,” Schattauer says.

Always outspoken about her cancer and its treatment, Schattauer now finds herself in a spokesperson role. She often tells her colleagues and the parents from school about the importance of a colonoscopy.

“I say, ‘I didn’t want to do it. I’d heard all these nightmares about how awful it was.’ Yet, it truly wasn’t that awful. And if I could help save somebody else by just talking about it, I could do that,” she says.

At her retirement party, several well-wishers approached Schattauer and let her know that they’d gone out and had their colonoscopies because of her.

“I think it’s really important that we advocate from what we know is right. It’s no different than advocating for education,” says Schattauer, who has had a clean bill of health since March 2008.

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