Clarke Central High School security officer Vara Loggins’ post on campus is the Baxter Street student parking lot. Though she has been faced with obstacles throughout her life, Loggins has never given up on herself or her goals. “I was 16 when I got pregnant with my son, my oldest son, but I still finished high school. I still went to college,” Loggins said. Photo by Julie Alpaugh.
Update: The ODYSSEY Media Group will provide viewers with weekly stylized profiles that center on people in the Athens community telling their own stories.
By CATHERINE ARGABRIGHT – Staff Writer
Clarke Central High School security officer Vara Loggins overcame her struggles to become a positive role model at CCHS.
“Get in here sweetheart, it’s cold.”
The door opened to a small box situated at the front of the Clarke Central High School parking lot. She sat comfortably in front of a heater. She is calm, collected, it is any other day. Her voice, her being, she softens the cold room. She is a warm woman.
She has worked at CCHS for only two short years, but she looks at home here. She looks comfortable. The gold stitched security badge appeared to glow on the side of her arm. She was engulfed by the nylon blue jacket. It seemed to protect her.
Her legs were crossed, she was at ease, unfazed by what had happened to her.
She discovered she was pregnant when she was only a sophomore in high school. Though initially a student at Madison County High School, CCHS Security officer Vara Loggins chose to attend an alternative school. She was then able to earn her GED through a program sponsored by Athens Technical College, where she eventually got her medical assisting license.
“It was hard, it was very hard, but I mean you can do it, you can do it. You just gotta learn from your mistakes,” Loggins said.
One would have never guessed that she had suffered at the hands of her first son’s father as the whimsical pink tips at the end of her bright, blonde hair would seem to tell a less painful story.
“It was a very bad relationship, he was a very abusive person, very mean,” Loggins said.
A truck went loudly by the security substation overlooking Baxter Street, she turned to see it. She looked regal sitting there, her presence so commanding. She knows pain, but she has never let it set her back.
Her strength, her courage and her perseverance are what have allowed her to overcome and grow from the struggles she faced.
“Just learn from your first mistake, don’t ever make the same mistake twice. It’s not the fact that you fall down that matters, but the fact that you’ve picked yourself up and have just tried again that counts,” Loggins said.
Her bright, blonde hair, delicate Southern accent and soft brown eyes do not paint a picture of a woman scorned, but rather one of a powerful, intelligent mother, who has built a healthy life for herself and her children.
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