Stephanie Marie LaCount was born here in Fruita on June 7, 1983 and was raised on her family’s farm outside of town. Her parents were nurses, and she was named after a woman they worked with named Stephanie. She loved hanging out with her friends and they played outside a ton, on the trampoline, the pool, or just running around. One of her group’s favorite things to do was to line up, link hands, the person on the end would touch the electric fence, and they would all get shocked. Her house was where everyone hung out, because she had the biggest yard. She didn’t really watch much TV as a kid, but she enjoyed the Smurfs and Thundercats when she was younger. Her favorite subject was always English, because there was “no right answer” and she could look for her own meaning, she liked the ambiguity.
She graduated from Fruita High School in 2001, and her favorite class was AP English, it was one of the few classes where she had to actually try in order to succeed, and she loved reading and writing. In fact, her teacher officiated her wedding and was a huge influence in her life, believing in her and telling her that she had a gift for speaking. Her first job was painting apartment rooms when she was 14, which was kind of terrible, and she definitely loves her current job of teaching a lot more. She was in yearbook for three years, and enjoyed being a photographer for it.
She went to Colorado Mesa University, and was and undergrad there. The most difficult class she had was Latin, and one of the worst classes was history of Literary Criticism. College itself wasn’t very difficult, but balancing full time school and a job was, and she didn’t really enjoy college that much. She went, she learned, she left.
Mrs. LaCount is now a Comp/Lit and Mythology teacher at Fruita 8/9, and absolutely loves her job. She decided to become a teacher when she was a freshman in high school, so that she could help others find their potential. She now spends 90% of her day laughing about how goofy her students are, and the best moments for her are when she sees someone do something genuinely kind, that others might not notice. Her belief is that you can never love enough, you can always love someone even more than you do. One student described her as a kind, caring person that would do anything to help a kid, and she want her student to know that she real. Genuine. She may enjoy having a few bad kids in her class, but appreciates the kids she doesn’t have to worry about. The worst thing she has to deal with in the classroom is kids who she knows are going to self-destruct, and not being able to help them, and she has learned that no matter how disrespectful people are, they will eventually respect you if you respect them. She believes that you get what you give, not quite Karma, but the same idea. Ms. LaCount is known for being the school Mom, Counselor, Bouncer, and has a loyal bouncer crew of former students. If she couldn’t have been a teacher, she would be a doctor or nurse, and was a phlebotomist for a while before becoming a teacher. She saw a lot of stuff.
Ms. LaCount is a great person and teacher, a genuinely kind person that would do anything to help her students, and she also keeps them out of trouble. Her favorite book is The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein, and her favorite series is Harry Potter, which she’s read at least 8 times by now.