After almost three months, Fleetwood Area High School is pleased to welcome media teacher Mr. Sean Gaston back to the building. On Thursday, 18 October, Gaston was driving to school when he was rear-ended by a distracted driver.
After the collision, Gaston lost control of the car and, while attempting to fix the direction his car was traveling, he wound up colliding with a telephone pole. Gaston took the day off but decided to return to teaching a day or two after the incident. Students could tell something was wrong. Gaston’s usual level of excitement for teaching was off, and so were his reflexes. After one day, he went to visit the doctor, where they told him he couldn’t return to teaching until he was fully recovered.
The next two months were filled with little technology use and lots of rest.
“I had a serious concussion and couldn’t function mentally. I wasn’t allowed to drive and had to go to physical therapy to relearn some brain functions, and that took a while,” Gaston said.
As most of his students know, Gaston loves teaching and would never have voluntarily missed so much class time.
“I honestly missed teaching. I love what I do and thinking about not being able to do that, like before, was something that took me a little while to realize,” Gaston said.
In Gaston’s absence, a long-term substitute was necessary. Mrs. Sherry took over the daily classroom operations with the help of Mrs. Candace Hall, who communicated with Gaston at home. Librarian Mr. Kirby Barnett took over grading for all of Gaston’s classes.
“The hardest part was jumping in in the middle of the quarter,” Barnett said. “I didn’t know the expectations of each class, which made it difficult to grade assignments and projects.”
Gaston has been cleared by his doctor to return to teaching full time.
“It feels great to be back,” Gaston said. “I’m looking forward to things returning to normal. I’m not 100% yet, but I’ll get there in due time.”
The Tiger Times 
Posted on February 19, 2019 by thetigertimes7
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