A beloved Kings High School Spanish teacher has died due to COVID-19.
Jorge Gonzalez succumbed to the illness caused by the new coronavirus on Oct. 18, according to Dawn Gould, community relations coordinator at the Kings Local School District in Warren County.
Gonzalez, 56, was fully vaccinated, she said.
Two visitations for the 34-year teaching veteran are scheduled for early next week.
Meanwhile, tributes to Gonzalez – who also coached junior high football for several years – are flooding social media and a GoFundMe page for his family has already exceeded its $25,000 goal.
“Just a kind soul that really connected with kids,” Troy Houk of Maineville, who went to Kings High School, said on the school district's Facebook page.
“Señor Gonzalez treated kids as his equal and didn’t patronize them. Very sad news, may his family find peace in their process of grief that he molded so many lives.”
He led school district's diversity push
In recent years, Gonzalez was the Diversity and Inclusion Coordinator for the Kings Local School District and moderated the student-led club, KOAR (Knights Organized Against Racism).
“It was very hard going to a school where there was a strong lack of diversity & (Gonzalez) being the leader of the diversity & inclusion task force made such a huge difference,” former Kings High School student Shawn Render said on the school district’s Facebook page.
“I felt as though it was a safe space for myself & other students who were different.”
Gonzalez worked two years at the Fairfield Local Schools in Leesburg, Ohio, before coming to Kings High School.
He was the Spanish Club advisor, a department chair and a “buddy teacher” to newly employed teachers, the Kings Local School District said on its Facebook page.
School books to Guatemala
Gonzalez started the Kings High School Hoxworth Blood drive, served eight years on the Ohio Education Association’s board of directors and traveled to Guatemala with the Cooperative for Education of Westwood to take computers and textbooks to children.
He was married to Karin Gonzalez, an English language learner teacher at the school district’s J.F. Burns Elementary School. They have a daughter who is a junior at Kings High School.
Fundraisers and visitations
As of Friday morning, nearly $29,600 had been raised on a GoFundMe page to help the Gonzalez family pay the cost of his hospitalization and to assist with his daughter’s college expenses.
You also can donate to the Jorge Gonzalez Memorial Scholarship Fund at any Fifth Third Bank location.
The first visitation for Gonzalez will be from 5 pm. to 7 p.m. Monday, Oct. 25, at Mueller Funeral Home, 6791 Tylersville Road in Mason.
A second visitation will be from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. Tuesday, Oct. 26, at St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church, 9080 Cincinnati Dayton Road in West Chester Township.
Mass of Christian Burial will immediately follow.
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