East Vancouver educator Sol Diana opens classroom door to students seeking safe space
The Killarney Secondary teacher, poet, and boxing coach carries an open-door policy shaped by the mentorship he wished for as a child.
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Sol Diana keeps his classroom door open at Killarney Secondary. It's a deliberate choice—a mental image he held when he began teaching, a reflection of what he needed as a child.
Diana is a poet, a boxing coach, and a beloved educator whose way with words extends beyond the page to how he meets students in real time. "I keep a pretty open-door policy," he told The Tyee. "That's something that I visualized for myself when I started being a teacher. Because as a kid, that was often something I would need. So it's been really awesome to sort of embody the teacher that I would have wanted."
A Filipino Canadian spoken-word artist, Diana reads the room, then reads the poem aloud to bring it together. He became widely known in 2025 for "the garden on fraser and 41st," written in the aftermath of the Lapu-Lapu Day festival tragedy that struck Vancouver's Filipino community. The poem, with its line "On Sunday we sounded like thunder," resonated far beyond that community, knitting people together across the city.
Diana described the writing as an out-of-body experience. "I haven't written like that since. Something took over. It definitely felt like a spiritual moment," he said.
He has ADHD, which he managed with medication for a couple of years before it worsened his sleep; he's been unmedicated since, navigating the disorder through other strategies. Teaching with ADHD has taught him to lean into its strengths. "I definitely struggle when I compare myself to my colleagues who are Type A and have run a tight ship, have everything organized and their classroom is spotless," he said. "But now that I have a few years under my belt, I've really leaned into some of the strengths that my ADHD gives me. I think I'm really sensitive to what my students need. I'll pick up on certain things. I'm able to change and adapt on the fly."
A book of his work is in development. For now, his creative life unfolds in the classroom and on the page—spaces where his students know they can let down their guard.
The details
Where does Sol Diana teach?
Sol Diana teaches at Killarney Secondary in East Vancouver.
What poem did Sol Diana write that gained widespread recognition?
'The garden on fraser and 41st' brought Sol Diana wide recognition in 2025 after the Lapu-Lapu Day festival tragedy that affected Vancouver's Filipino community.
What is Sol Diana's open-door policy?
Sol Diana deliberately keeps his classroom door open as a safe space for students, modelling the kind of mentorship and accessibility he wished for as a child.
