Parent Teacher Magazine Union County Public Schools March 2015 | Page 12

Monroe High School students step up for a beloved teacher

Monroe High School English teacher Kayla Losh still has a hard
time talking about the day her students went without food, donating
their lunch money to help her save her husband’s life.
Her husband, Matt, has IgA nephropathy – an inflammatory kidney
condition that forced him to need daily dialysis and a new kidney.
Doctors had told the couple that because of Matt’s rare blood
type, it could take up to 10 years to find a match. That’s when the
first miracle happened. Kayla, 25, was a match to donate a kidney to
her husband.
That surgery almost didn’t happen, however, as a problem with
Medicare threatened to put the brakes on the surgery.

The couple didn’t hold out much hope, however, and were br
themselves for the worst.
Kayla, an English teacher, junior varsity head basketball coa
and yearbook adviser, is well thought of by her students, and on
Friday, they showed her just how much they cared.
Monroe High School student body president Aimee Bell, 18,
started asking fellow students if they would donate money to he
their beloved teacher.
“We just went up to people and told them what happened,” A
said. “They were just giving money out of their pockets. People
giving their lunch money. I gave my lunch money. Everybody di
They got heart.”

Aimee sent a text to Kayla t
her what they were doing in an
effort to lift her spirits. “Monroe H
has plenty of kids from struggling
families,” Kayla said. “They hand
over their lunch money; some di
eat that day – and they didn’t th
twice. Our kids don’t have that to
give. It was incredibly overwhelm
It still is. There is nothing I can d
ever repay that to them.”

Kayla received numerous tex
from students on Friday telling h
they were thinking about her, bu
one from Aimee stands out.

“Aimee said, ‘I know you’re
having a really bad day, but we’r
going to do everything we can to
you,” Kayla remembers. “We all l
you.’ ”

Tomacina McLendon, 16, a
Monroe High 10th grader, was on
the students who joined the effor
raise money for their beloved tea
“The biggest response from stud
was that she is a really good teac
and they would give her their las
dime.”

By the end of the day Friday
students had raised almost $600
“From high school students, I wa
expecting that much, but they ca
Monroe High School student body president Aimee Bell, 18, at left, and Tomacina McLendon, 16, a Monroe High
10th grader, look at a yearbook layout with their adviser, Monroe High School English teacher Kayla Losh.
through,” Tomacina said. “It was
the heart. It was special to get th
“On the Thursday before his surgery, the hospital told us we
much money.”
would need to have at least $5,000 by Monday in order to do the
(continued on next
surgery on Wednesday,” Kayla said. “Over a seven-month period, we
Tomacina said these actions speak volumes about the caliber of
were able to collect $2,500 on our kidney fundraising site. Now we
students at her school.
had to collect another $2,500 in four days.”
“People have a lot to say about our school and the names th
Kayla took the following day off from school to try to find a way
we get from other schools,” she said. “We’re not what everyone
to raise the money. “We talked to our insurance company and to the
thinks we are. They say we have nothing, but as a whole, we do
Soci