Correction: Lyndie Lorenger was not in a car accident. She twisted her back, which led to several injuries to that area after she had already been experiencing pain. We apologize to Lorenger, her family and readers for the mistake and have updated our reporting standards to prevent similar errors.
In October, English teacher Lyndie Lorenger had to take a temporary leave due to an injury she sustained to her back from a car accident. All of her classes have been taught by substitute teacher, Cynthia Espinoza-Julio, until her planned return on Jan 6 after approval from her doctors.
From the car accident, Lorenger sustained several injuries that required her to get back surgery and rehabilitation efforts to recover properly from the impact.
“She had issues with the discs in her back pinching the nerves. It was giving her a lot of sciatic back pain and also giving her pain in her legs,” Lorenger’s husband, digital media teacher Drew Lorenger said.
Drew Lorenger has been supporting Lorenger’s recovery at home, helping her through this time with the encouragement of both staff and students on campus.
“This school has been tremendous. The Bulldog family, including the staff and the students, have been a tremendous support during this time. … She’s received text messages from her teacher squad, friends, words of encouragement that have been sent home through me from other teachers and several of her students have sent home with me cards and candy and other gifts to try to make her feel better,” Drew Lorenger said.
In room K-4, Lorenger’s students have been waiting for their teacher’s return to the classroom.
“Ms. Lorenger was one of my closest teachers I felt most comfortable with. She’s very nice and doesn’t deserve any of this on her recent physical condition,” freshman Kuauhtli Kuauhtzin said.
The same student expressed that the unexpected transition had taken some time for the class to adjust to a new teaching style this far into the semester.
“It’s been difficult because we’ve been doing lessons on different things from our substitute themselves, and one of the other teachers I’m not completely sure by who. I think it might be Mr. Moser. And the thing is that his class level and our class level are not the same so sometimes you could be ahead of them. Sometimes they’ll be ahead of us so it’s been really difficult to adjust to his teaching style,” Kuauhtzin said.
Meanwhile, Espinoza-Julio is maintaining Lorenger’s class in her absence, following an assigned curriculum based on the plans Lorenger left with the help of other English teachers.
“This is my first time doing a long-term sub and it’s very different from my usual subbing, simply because everything has been planned already. In the past versus this one, I actually get to teach on a long-term. So in that sense, it is very different. Again, because of Mr. Moser and Ms. Sun, I’m able to facilitate the lessons a lot easier,” Espinoza-Julio said.
For now, students and staff anticipate her return after a nearly two-month-long wait.
