A pregnant upstate New York teacher who was just weeks away from having her first child has died after collapsing in her classroom.
Courtney Fannon, 29, a special-ed teacher at Kendal Central School in the rural community some 30 miles northwest of Rochester, was found unresponsive in her classroom on Friday, USA Today reported.
She collapsed shortly after sending her husband, Kurtis, a text, the outlet said, without detailing what it was about.
Fannon was rushed to a hospital, where doctors attempted to save her and her unborn daughter, whom they had already named Hadley Jaye. The cause of death was unavailable.
“The world lost 2 beautiful souls, Courtney Fannon and Hadley Jaye Fannon, long before any of us were ready to live in a world without them,” her husband’s friend Matt Smith wrote in a GoFundMe page for the family.
“They were called to eternal rest the night of March 8th, after a very tragic and unexpected turn of events,” he wrote in the account, which has raised almost $53,000 as of Thursday morning.
Fannon had taught special education in the district since 2018. “Courtney was a special education teacher who served her students with passion and joy each day,” schools Superintendent Nicholas Picardo said in a message, USA Today reported.
“When she wasn’t in her classroom sharing her love and gift for teaching with her students, she could be found walking our halls with a smile and a friendly hello,” he added.
In his lengthy post on GoFundMe, Smith wrote that Kurtis is living the “worst nightmare of having to return to a home, filled with baby toys, bottles, furniture and a finished nursery, that will no longer be filled with the cooing sounds and shuffling of a newborn.”
