Guy Weeks enters retirement a happy man

Photo by Alex Dominguez

DOWNEY — After a 30-year teaching career, Warren High School teacher Guy Weeks officially has his eyes set on the beaches of Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.

After graduating from North High School in Torrance and continuing his education through El Camino College and UCLA, Weeks - at that time, a Republican - found himself working on the campaign trail amongst high level politics.

“Throughout all of that time, I had worked on campaigns. My real passion was politics,” said Weeks. “I got a call from up north from the minority leader Pat Nolan’s office in Sacramento. They had a campaign they wanted me to try out, so I did; I went down, interviewed, and I got it.”

“I became an onsite director, and we ended up pulling off the biggest upset in the 1986 state elections.”

Weeks was named Chief-of-Staff; the youngest in the state and “making good money.”

However, it was in teaching where he would find his future.

“After working with kids in the campaign at Bellflower High, I realized that teaching was my real passion,” said Weeks. “I wanted to do something that made me happy.”

He also had to come to grips with some other personal revelations that would trigger some dramatic life changes.

“I also at the same time had to realize that not everything is about money and ambition, but also personal happiness,” said Weeks. “I had to accept the fact that I was gay; that was an epiphany, sort of like an early midlife crisis.”

“That also changed my politics. That life experience made me have much more empathy for those people who have been discriminated against and that live in the shadows...I know what it’s like sometimes to be the ‘other’ or live in the shadows.”

The popular government teacher – who now identifies as an independent - has spent the entirety of his career within Downey Unified, and almost exclusively with the Bears, teaching varying combos of government and history, before ultimately solely teaching government over the last 10 years.

“I want to say, generally speaking the district has been very good, supportive whether you’re conservative, liberal, whatever,” said Weeks.

While Weeks - who says he was the only openly gay teacher for many years - admits that there were some difficult times in regards to his sexuality during his tenure, he says he was often times supported by the students, staff, and community.

“When I first started teaching, I told my parents that I would not hide who I am,” said Weeks. “So, when the time did arise that kids started asking questions… I said, ‘ask me on your own time.’ I’m a strong believer that there’s an appropriate time, and it’s not something that’s going to come right on out unless I think it’s appropriate, and eventually it was appropriate.”

And although Weeks says that “it didn’t go without some sleepless nights,” he is adamant that the campus climate has improved and become more and more accepting over time – for both he and students alike.

His only regret as he leaves: that no one will be taking on his popular multi-week election-simulation for which he was known across campus.

“You lecture all you want, most don’t remember much after,” said Weeks. “But I learned early on the thing that [students] remember is the hands-on stuff; the stuff when they worked with others.”

“I fortunately have gotten a lot of feedback from students who remember the election simulation. All over the country now, I have little former Weeks students that are poly-sci, law or working on campaigns all over the country…that gives me chills down my spine; that’s what it’s about.”

Now at the end of his career, Weeks has his sights set on returning to a country with which he fell in love: Mexico.

“I’ve been planning to move to Puerto Vallarta; I’ve already got my apartment, I’m just waiting to fly out,” said Weeks. “I realized that – unlike when I was young – you can love two countries.”

“By guess or by gander, one summer I wanted to go away. I was unhappy…I went down to Mexico and there was a sense of community, spirituality; something about the city, the people.”

While the current COVID-19 pandemic has thrown a few wrenches in his ultimate retirement plans, one thing remains for sure.

“I promised my students that on my Facebook posts, they would see me with a bonita margarita in hand, and a guapo senor on the other,” said Weeks. “That has to wait because Columbia is locked up tighter than a drum, so I have to wait until September to see my boyfriend; I’m afraid that won’t be posted until 2021.”

“But we will be on a beach somewhere, me and my boyfriend. And he’s a keeper, I’m very very happy today. I want that to be understood too, that I am happy as I have ever been the last few years with life, and especially for those young gay kids. The old saying, ‘it gets better,’ it’s true.”