[Update 5-14-2025]

Mr. Brandon Austin died on May 14. The details of his death remain undisclosed.

[4-29-2025]

A feeling of excitement rushes through Geography teacher Mr. Brandon Austin as he steps foot back onto campus. 

After Mr. Austin taught at many various schools, he returned to the first high school he opened as the first teacher of the year.

“I was happy to come back,” Mr. Austin said. “I should never have left. I was really happy here. Things were going good. I had nice programs set up in place, and then I had so much fun to open this school.”

After the opening, Mr. Austin received the offer to open Lake Ridge.

“I thought opening a new school again sounded like a great idea,” Mr. Austin said. “It wasn’t, I should have just stayed here. I should have just stayed put, and you learn.” 

From Mr. Austin’s personal experience, he found Legacy to be the best option when it came to students. 

“I’ve worked at Lake Ridge, Mansfield, Ben Barber, here, but I was never there permanently,” Mr. Austin said. “But one thing that’s the same is the kids were always the nicest and always the easiest here. That hasn’t changed at all, and that’s still true.”

Now that Mr. Austin has returned, three of his former students work with him as teachers. AP World History and AP European History teacher Ms. Abbigayle Marion sat in his history class in high school. 

“I love [teaching]. I always liked it with students,” Mr. Austin said. “I think Ms. Marion might be the greatest teacher of all time, and she’s just in the making and so I’m so excited to watch her grow.”

Along with Ms. Marion, Social Studies teacher Mr. Hunter Logan enrolled in Mr. Austin’s course in high school. 

“Mr. Logan and I’ve always got along. I helped him stay committed to vegetation and teaching, and he’s a great guy,” Mr. Austin said.

When Mr. Austin taught at Lake Ridge, he led the social studies UIL team and recruited former student, now AP English III teacher, Ms. Alexandra Kim. 

“Then Ms. Kim, watching her do UIL when she first started, she was on my UIL team,” Mr. Austin said. “So it’s cool to watch those kids grow up, mature and become, hopefully, a better teacher than I ever was.”

Mr. Austin used to work with Principal Stephannie Bonneau when she taught English at Legacy.

“I was an English teacher and he taught social studies. He was kind of the same as he is now, very outgoing,” Dr. Bonneau said. “He’s always been great with students. He’s funny, entertaining, but he also knows his content.

One of Mr. Austin’s former students, Ms. Marion, developed a relationship with him that now grows because of his recent hiring. 

“I was so excited when I heard he was coming back. Some personalities are meant to be in the classroom. Then teenagers need to be around those personalities, and I think he’s one of them,” Ms. Marion said. “So getting to teach with him at Legacy, a school that I’ve been at for a while and have grown to love, it’s a lot of fun.” 

For Ms. Marion, Mr. Austin guided her through her high school journey as a mentor. The recent events of his hiring allow Ms. Marion to continue learning from his experience and influence. 

“It’s fun getting to teach alongside your old teachers,” Ms. Marion said. “They’re still your mentors, they’re still teaching you how to do things, but now you get to be friends and so that’s fun, especially with something that we’re so passionate about.”

From her personal experience, Mr. Austin always provided a successful and comfortable learning environment for his students. 

“He’s funny. Kids walk out of his room, one feeling seen and cared about, but two, they learned something,” Ms. Marion said. “And so I think having that energy in our school, it’s just going to be very positive.”

According to studies, teachers who engage more in daily classroom activities and student interaction have a higher likelihood of providing higher-quality education. This leads to students having higher active participation levels in their daily lectures and allows them to succeed. 

“I think that our AP World History and AP European History programs are going to grow because I feel he’s going to be good support, but also a champion of those two classes,” Ms. Marion said. “I think that those programs are really going to grow just based off his energy and his excitement. He is a kid magnet, so I’m excited to watch those things grow on campus.” 

When it comes to Ms. Kim’s personal knowledge, she believes Mr. Austin provides the support students need from not just a teacher, but a mentor. 

“He is one of the funniest teachers and really someone who cares about his students,” Ms. Kim said. “I’m an English teacher and English is my forte, but for the longest time I thought I wanted to do something with economics because of how good of a teacher he was.”

Teachers who establish and build relationships with their students create a comfortable environment where students feel motivated to learn and attend class. If a student knows a teacher cares about them or wants them to succeed, it makes them more likely to attend class and ask for the help they need. To Ms. Kim, Mr. Austin provides an example of an inclusive and welcoming teacher. 

“He’s someone that makes learning accessible to students but also makes students feel like they’re seen and valued, which is something that I’ve taken into my job with me and have learned from him to be that way with my kids,” Ms. Kim said. “I really think he’s someone that makes everybody feel welcomed and excited to learn and not just a passing face in the hallway.”

Not only did Mr. Austin influence Ms. Marion, but he also influenced and encouraged Ms. Kim by acting as an important figure in her high school time. 

“This is really cool for me. He was a mentor for me when I was in high school,” Ms. Kim said. “I told him that I was going to fly under the radar, and he very much was like no you’re not gonna fly under the radar, you’re going to make friends, you’re going to get to know people and have a really good senior year. And so when he had told me that he had stuck to that and kind of became someone that I trusted and that was a big confidant that I had, and so he was a mentor.” 

Although Ms. Kim now works with Mr. Austin, the relationship between the two narrowly changed.

“He is someone that even though he’s my coworker now and he’s not my teacher, he’s someone I’ve always respected and will always respect so it’s kind of like that’s still established,” Ms. Kim said. “But it’s cool for me to watch him see what I do now because he’ll make comments where I have always been super organized and cared about this stuff and to see me do this makes him feel super excited.”

After leaving Legacy for a long period of time, Mr. Austin chose to return to the campus.  

“I always like teaching. I always like being in the classroom and I wasn’t done teaching,” Mr. Austin said. “I’ve never been to the school twice. It was actually really surreal, walking in, it was always my best five years I had in school. So it felt really good.”