Columbia teacher led ‘powerful life,’ inspired many before her death from COVID-19

Demetria “Demi” Bannister, a 28-year-old Columbia educator, was just getting started with her life when COVID-19 ended it.

But she filled her short life with a love that will outlive her, and that will continue to shape those who knew her, family and friends said.

Bannister’s aunt, Shirley Mills, could see the girl had stars in her eyes from the moment she was born, she said. Mills never stopped reminding her niece of that — and Bannister never forgot it.

“I said, ‘You do know that you’re special?’ And she said, ‘Yes, ma’am,’” Mills said. “And she did have that glow about her and that confidence about her all of her life. ... Demetria always stood out.”

The two had a close bond, even when Bannister went through those typically rough teenage years, Mills said.

“We kind of got each other, and would sneak off to the fancy restaurants in Columbia and have fancy food and drink and I would introduce her to culinary delights. And, to my delight, she was always game,” she said.

Mills could take Bannister to eat oysters on the half shell — her niece was one of the only people in the family who liked them, she said.

While growing up, when Bannister stayed with her grandmother while her parents worked, they would adorn themselves with dresses and decorative hats and perform skits together, Mills said. It was how they passed the time, but Bannister’s creativity was the family’s glue.

She was the first to perform a song or a skit, or organize a Family Feud-style game show for family reunions, making sure to include everyone from the babies to the oldest grandparents. When her grandmother turned 90 years old this year, Bannister organized a “drive-by parade” to celebrate her birthday safely. It may have been the last time Bannister saw her grandmother, Mills said.

“It’s really strange how God always picks the prettiest flowers to bring home to him,” Mills said.

As a teacher, Bannister used that same inventiveness, care and attention to detail to connect with her students. Rebecca Twitty, 23, started teaching fourth grade at Windsor Elementary last year. As soon as classroom rosters were announced, Twitty said Bannister ran up to her and asked to see her list of students. She wanted to know how many of her “babies” Twitty would be teaching that year.

“‘You’re going to love all of them,’” she said Bannister told her. “‘No problems at all.’”

That interaction kicked off a friendship, and Twitty would often consult Bannister to learn more about the students she was inheriting. Bannister would want to know how her former students were doing, how they had changed or grown. As two of the youngest teachers on staff, they were youth liaisons, explaining to older teachers and administrators what students’ memes and TikTok videos meant, or what songs students were listening to.

After work, they would have dinner at Red Lobster or go to the gym together, and Twitty got to know more about what made Bannister a memorable teacher.

“She was known for having her classroom upbeat and setting her expectations high. Even if she knew a particular student would struggle with a lesson, she wouldn’t let them look down on themselves,” Twitty said.

One time, Bannister assigned her students to do “math sprints,” Twitty said. They had 60 seconds to answer as many math questions as they could. Bannister would do it with them, and tell students to compete with her.

“She wanted to show them she’s not above sitting and doing these math sprints with them,” Twitty said.

She loved education, her uncle, Heyward Bannister, said. Although she had dreams of becoming a professional singer — and she was known as “Windsor’s Songbird” — once she started teaching, Demi Bannister fused her passions into one purpose-driven job.

Her final days were spent doing what she loved. Bannister last visited her classroom on Aug. 28, during a teacher workday before the start of the school year, according to the Richland 2 school district. She taught students remotely, from the home she shared with her parents, up until a few days before her death.

Richland District 2 has been teaching all students remotely since classes started on Aug. 31. District officials plan to continue all-virtual classes as long as DHEC says the incident rate of cases in Richland County is high.

On Sept. 4, she tested positive for the coronavirus, school officials said. Bannister’s health rapidly deteriorated, and she was hospitalized in an intensive care unit until Sept. 7, when she died of COVID-19.

When asked about Bannister in a news conference on Sept. 10, Gov. Henry McMaster said coronavirus cases were to be expected in school settings, but that he wouldn’t reverse course on reopenings.

“People are going to get it. The evidence is very clear. And some of them are going to be teachers, some are going to be students,” he said. “We cannot live in fear of the virus and shut down every institution in sight. It will not work and it certainly won’t work here.”

McMaster later said Bannister’s death was “a tragedy” and that even one death was too many.

Bannister’s aunt and uncle did not want to comment on where she could have contracted the virus, but they had concerns about school reopenings, Heyward Bannister said. He wants his niece’s death to resonate with the decision makers who are guiding the public through the pandemic.

“I am hopeful that the leaders at the local, state and national level would put everything on pause, in terms of the reopening of schools, the reopening of certain businesses,” Heyward Bannister said. “Re-evaluate or assess where things are, because without a uniform testing policy, without a known cure or vaccine, I think you put people in harm’s way when you have so many uncertainties. I’m hopeful the life of people will take lead over the appearance of making the economy come back and creating some normalcy based on what used to be.”

Testing is an issue the Bannister family has dealt with directly. Mills and Heyward Bannister were isolated at home, taking calls and answering condolence messages from across the country while awaiting test results on Sept. 11.

Demi Bannister’s parents struggled to find a place that would test them for the coronavirus, despite the fact that they had lived with their daughter while she had COVID-19, Mills said. They kept getting denied because they weren’t showing symptoms.

“It just doesn’t make any sense to me,” Mills said. “That’s a bad, bad, bad public policy. If you’re gonna stop the spread of a disease, why are you going to send two people back out into the community who are going to spread?”

Bannister’s parents later tested positive for the virus, and her mother, a nurse educator, is being treated at a Columbia-area hospital for COVID-19 complications, Mills said.

As they grieve and make their way through the disorienting pandemic, Bannister’s family and friends feel some peace knowing her legacy won’t be forgotten, and that it will bear fruit in time.

“We are hanging on to the blessing of having had 28 years with her. It’s so sad that it had to end,” Mills said. “She lived a very powerful life, but only too short.”