Lisa Ann Walter Jokes She 'Loves' Her Abbott Elementary Kids as Her Own Won't 'Give Me Grandbabies' (Exclusive)

Lisa Ann Walter says she has a special bond with her Abbott Elementary School class.

On September 12, PEOPLE teamed up with IHG Hotels & Resorts to host a pre-Emmy panel event featuring the cast of the Emmy-nominated series Abbott Elementary School. Walter, who attended alongside her co-stars Sheryl Lee Ralph, Chris Perfetti and William Stanford Davis, says one of the things she enjoys about filming the show is spending time with the kids who play her students.

“Some of them, especially when they’re new, they still look at us as teachers,” Walter, who plays second-grade teacher Melissa Schemmenti, tells PEOPLE. “Even the ones who were in my class.”

“I’m Miss Melissa and they talk to me like I’m their teacher,” she continues. “Sometimes it’s Miss Barbara, sometimes it’s Mrs. Howard. And they ask us [questions] like, can I go to the bathroom or help with this worksheet?”

The cast of ‘Abbott Elementary’.

Disney

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Walter, 61, said it’s a very different experience to what she has at home with her four grown children Jordan, 36, Delia, 32, and twins Spencer and Simon, 23 — especially since she doesn’t have any grandchildren yet.

“And I personally love it because my four grown children are too selfish to give me grandchildren,” he joked at the event, which was held at the Kimpton Everly Hotel in Los Angeles. “One is getting her doctorate, but that’s her excuse. And I love being able to meet with the kids and teach them and just spend time with them, and sometimes it’s wild.”

(L-R) Lisa Ann Walter, Sheryl Lee Ralph, Chris Perfetti and Tyler James Williams in ‘Abbott Elementary’.

Gilles Mingasson/Disney

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The cast spoke of their appreciation for the show several times before Season 4. When news of the renewal first broke in April, Walter said it was the first time in her career that she truly felt safe.

“We worked for three full decade-plus long careers, and then we hit it big at this stage in our lives,” Walter told PEOPLE of herself and Ralph, 67, at the time. “Nothing is a guarantee of what you can do or when you should do it or what you should try.”

A few months later at D23 in August, Ralph was on Abbott, created by star Quinta Brunson.

Quinta Brunson at ‘Abbott Elementary’.

Gilles Mingasson/Disney

“First of all, I really love Barbara Howard,” Ralph said. “It’s that favorite teacher or teacher who pushed you to be just a little bit better because she saw in you what you may not have seen in yourself.”

She even joked that the children come to the set as if they were in a real classroom with her as their teacher.

Sheryl Lee Ralph says that the children who play her students Abbott Elementary School Believe ‘I am their teacher’

“Oh my god, it’s just the best,” she said. – And they write to me when the show ends, they will stay in touch, they will tell me what they did during the summer.

Ralph went on to explain that she feels a deep connection to her character because of her upbringing: “I was raised by teachers, I’m surrounded by teachers, but I get the best of the fake teacher life.”

Abbott Elementary School premiered in 2021 and is now entering its fourth season. The sitcom became an instant hit and has won several major awards over the years, including an Emmy and a Golden Globe for Brunson’s portrayal of teacher Janine Teagues.

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Abbott Elementary School season four is set to premiere on October 9 at 9:00 PM ET on ABC. Past seasons can be streamed on Hulu.

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Source: HIS Education