A beloved Rocklin teacher returned to the classroom despite the risk. Then he got COVID
Casey Nichols’ devotion to his friends, family, students and coworkers is evident from an outpouring of memories and love in Placer County over the last two weeks. The Rocklin High School teacher died earlier this month at 67.
“I knew he was a big deal, but I didn’t know the magnitude — literally hundreds and hundreds of students’ lives he’s impacted,” said the high school’s principal, Davis Stewart.
Nichols lived according to a strong set of guiding principles, chief among them a dedication to selflessly serving others. When a former colleague died unexpectedly before the start of this school year, Nichols, who was immunocompromised, came out of retirement to fill in — knowing full well the risk of doing so for him in particular. It was there, back in the classroom — the place Nichols loved most — that he contracted an ultimately fatal case of COVID.
Love for teaching
Nichols, a long-time Roseville resident, spent over half his life — 36 years — teaching. He had found his calling, and although he taught several subjects, those closest to him said it was in advising student journalism and yearbook courses that he thrived and received national accolades.
Outside Rocklin, Nichols dedicated his time to local student journalism programs such as the Sacramento School Beat and mentored new journalism instructors through the Journalism Education Association, which gave him a lifetime achievement award. Nichols received too many awards to list, but among them was Rocklin High Teacher of the Year.
“He was a different kind of educator,” said Ryan O’Donnell, a longtime colleague and friend. “I remember watching him teach and thinking, ‘Why can’t I be more like him?’ He had his finger on the pulse of kids as humans.”
Nichols was not a “sage on the stage” — a teacher who lectured at students — O’Donnell said. He was “the guy on the side.”
“He would give them all the tools they need, and they’d do this team-building and review the roles and responsibilities, and … he’d release it to the students so they’d gain leadership,” Stewart said. “That’s the art of teaching and the art of leading, and it was truly one of a kind.”
Placer County Roots
Growing up in Roseville, Nichols watched his parents make a difference through volunteer work – service that left an indelible mark on him. He attended Oakmont High School, Sacramento State, and Indiana’s Ball State, where he obtained a master’s in journalism. He was hired as sports editor at the Roseville Press Tribune at just 19.
In 2000, Nichols met Sarah, who would become his wife, at a journalism workshop in Orlando. The two bonded over a shared love of baseball (she quickly converted to supporting his San Francisco Giants) and went on to get married at an ocean-side ceremony in the Dominican Republic in 2005.
“We called it our world of two — we preferred just being together,” said Sarah Nichols, now a journalism teacher at Whitney High School and the president of the Journalism Education Association.
Nichols’ wife and 14-year-old daughter, Carson, plan to complete his goal of attending a baseball game in every major-league park. He had two left, Milwaukee and Miami.
Casey’s final lesson
Nichols’ friend Steve O’Donoghue, a longtime Northern California student journalism adviser, described him as an easy-going guy who played practical jokes and could appreciate one played on him.
Nichols was expert at hiding the daily pain he suffered from granulomatosis with polyangiitis (formerly known as Wegener’s granulomatosis), a rare autoimmune disease, O’Donoghue said.
“If you met him, you’d have no idea he was fighting this disease all the time,” his friend said. “His close friends and his family knew, but he was the same as before (his diagnosis) outwardly. … It was tough, because that in itself was a real threat to him.”
At the start of the pandemic, Nichols and his family did nothing but stay at home or go on walks in their neighborhood. The teacher, who had retired in 2019, suddenly found himself sharing the house with his wife, who was teaching full time, and his daughter, who was doing Zoom school.
“It was a huge part of our life to protect Casey, in particular, but we all believed our job was to protect everyone,” Sarah Nichols said. “We all believed in doing the right things for the right reason.”
Even once he was vaccinated, Nichols stayed vigilant. He wore an N95 mask everywhere he went. Sometimes he wore a mask that said “IMMUNOCOMPROMISED” to inform others that he was at high risk. He wore his mask proudly, without fear of potential blowback in Placer County, where COVID precautions remain controversial.
“Every (time) I see someone with a mask on, I say a silent thank you,” Nichols tweeted in May of 2020 alongside a selfie with a Giants mask. “We’re in this together. Be there for each other.”
The teacher sometimes took to Twitter to voice frustrations with those in Placer County who refused to wear masks, writing at one point, “You have the absolute right to be stupid in ways that don’t harm others. Refusing to wear a mask puts others at risk.”
In another tweet, he said “#unvaccinated and #antimaskers ARE crashing our #healthcare and #education systems by choosing rights over responsibilities.” Posted on Jan. 13, it would be his last.
A grieving community
Last summer, after Nichols’ retirement, his friend Craig Kaylor, a Rocklin High broadcasting and photography teacher, died unexpectedly. The school needed an immediate replacement, and he agreed to step up.
“I was nervous about him going back, but I supported and respected his decision because I was so proud — he wanted to help,” Sarah Nichols said. “He did ask for my blessing and wanted to decide together. If he was nervous about it, he chose not to bring that home.”
Casey Nichols returned to the classroom to teach a photography class three days a week. That was how he was infected, his wife said — it had to have been on campus, she said, because he wasn’t going anywhere else out of an abundance of caution.
He was admitted to Kaiser Permanente’s Roseville Medical Center twice, the first time for just over 24 hours. Sarah Nichols explained that they sent her husband home because he “wasn’t bad enough to stay.” He was in a COVID overflow area because the hospital was overwhelmed by the omicron surge.
The hospital also chose not to administer monoclonal antibodies despite the fact that he was immunocompromised, his wife said. At that point, Kaiser was prioritizing unvaccinated or partially vaccinated patients for doses of antibodies, as advised by the National Institutes of Health. A spokesperson for Kaiser Northern California explained that when Casey was hospitalized in January, the supply of monoclonal antibodies was severely limited.
At home for just under a week, Nichols’ condition continued to worsen. He was readmitted to the hospital and diagnosed with COVID-related pneumonia. His wife and daughter, Carson, were allowed to visit him in the hospital on Feb. 2, just before his death.
While he was hospitalized, his friend and colleague O’Donnell communicated with the family and relayed updates to Rocklin’s staff. One coworker said Nichols had met his wife 10 years ago, learned she was immunocompromised and continued asking about her all these years later.
“I was lucky enough to be a bit of that go-between and hear the love and concern and, afterwards, hear their grief,” O’Donnell said. “I was very touched, and I will always be touched.”
Stewart, Rocklin’s principal, said he heard from Nichols a couple of days before his death.
“He said it was his choice to come back, almost relieving me of any kind of sense of responsibility that it was our fault that he came back,” Stewart said
It would be easy for Nichols’ loved ones to turn his death into anger — anger toward an overburdened health care system that wasn’t able to treat Nichols the way he needed to be treated; anger toward those who go unmasked and unvaccinated; and anger toward a school district that has consistently downplayed the risks of COVID. Yet in keeping with Nichols’ attitude in life, there’s no such anger or bitterness.
“Casey (believed) everything is a choice, and I’m choosing to lead by example, with love and respect,” his wife said. “We can only control ourselves — and I’m a control freak, so that’s a big step for me. But I’m trying to honor him.”
Honoring Casey
A Casey Nichols Memorial Journalism scholarship, which will provide college scholarships to Rocklin High School journalism students, has nearly reached its $30,000 goal. Nichols’ loved ones agree that it’s the perfect way to honor his legacy.
Recently, Rocklin High School asked its staff to participate in an exercise stating “This is Who I Am.” Here’s who Nichols was, in his own words:
“Someone who has absolute faith in a friendly universe. …
“Learning, and then learning to serve, is why we’re here.”
This story was originally published February 20, 2022 at 5:00 AM.