“I almost didn’t want to see her.”
That’s how Arjun Maclean, a junior at Bridgewater High School in Ashburn, describes how he felt when the principal notified him and his classmates at school about how their teacher, Lisa Conlon, was recovering from brain surgery. After hearing of the procedure, students wrote to Conlon, and she replied by email that she was doing “OK,” and planned to check in on Facebook frequently. Students asked for updates and encouraged her to participate in school events like the state and local high school glee club competitions.
“Now that Lisa is ok, that is truly amazing,” writes one student on the school’s social media post. “You are an inspiration to my classmates and I am sure you are an inspiration to your students as well.”
A campus-wide afternoon-long reading session turned into a “demonstration of love, support and support for our community’s female teacher,” said Gary Kennedy, assistant principal at Bridgewater High School. Conlon was one of 20 teachers selected to participate in Bridgewater’s “reading instructor community-wide” reading activities, Kennedy said. She was on her way to treating her hard drive when she was stricken.
