The Principal Who Worked Overnight at Walmart So His Students Wouldn't Go Without

Most high school principals already have workdays that extend far beyond the final bell.

There are meetings with teachers, conversations with parents, student concerns, administrative paperwork, planning sessions and countless unexpected problems that must be handled before the next school day begins.

For Henry Darby, however, finishing his responsibilities as principal of North Charleston High School in South Carolina during the COVID-19 pandemic often meant preparing for an entirely different kind of work.

When many people in his community were getting ready to sleep, Darby headed to a local Walmart.

There, the school principal became an overnight retail worker, stocking shelves until morning.

According to TIME, Darby began working at Walmart in August 2020. He typically worked from 10 p.m. until 7 a.m. three nights a week, then left the store and arrived at North Charleston High School at about 7:45 a.m. to begin another day as principal. He later said that he essentially caught up on sleep during weekends.

But Darby had not taken the second job because he wanted more money for himself.

He wanted money for his students.

During the pandemic, he had watched families connected to his school struggle with unemployment, illness, food costs, housing expenses and other financial pressures. He had already been using his own emergency savings to help people, according to TIME, but eventually realized that his personal resources were not enough.

So Darby reached a remarkably simple conclusion.

If he wanted to keep helping people, he needed another source of income.

And that meant getting another job.

He Saw Problems That Could Not Be Solved in a Classroom

Darby's role as principal gave him a close view of what students faced after they left school.

Education is often discussed in terms of grades, graduation rates and test scores. But teachers and principals frequently encounter challenges that have little to do with textbooks.

Some students arrive at school carrying worries about food.

Others worry about whether electricity will remain on at home.

Some families struggle to make rent or mortgage payments.

And during the pandemic, those pressures became even more serious.

TIME reported that Darby's school served a community with a high poverty rate and that he had already been helping students and families with expenses including groceries, mortgage payments and funeral costs before taking the Walmart job.

The crisis Darby witnessed locally reflected a much larger national problem.

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Economic Research Service, food insecurity among American households with children rose during 2020. About 14.8 percent of households with children were food insecure in 2020, compared with 13.6 percent in 2019. That represented approximately 5.6 million households.

USDA researchers also found that about 2.9 million households experienced food insecurity specifically among children, affecting roughly 6.1 million children.

The numbers provide important national context.

For Darby, however, financial hardship was not merely a statistic.

It had names and faces.

These were students he saw in school hallways.

These were parents he spoke with.

These were families whose children were expected to concentrate on schoolwork while worrying about problems that would be difficult even for adults to handle.

Darby could encourage students academically, but encouragement could not buy groceries.

A motivational speech could not pay an electricity bill.

And telling a student to focus on school meant little if that student's family was worried about losing basic necessities.

Darby decided that sometimes leadership required something more practical.

From a Principal's Office to Walmart Shelves

At school, Darby was responsible for guiding students and staff through one of the most disruptive periods in modern American education.

At Walmart, his responsibilities were very different.

He stocked merchandise.

He organized shelves.

He performed physical work through the night.

Then morning arrived, and he switched roles again.

TIME reported that this routine continued from August 2020 until April 2021.

It was an exhausting schedule for anyone, especially for a man who was 66 at the time.