CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- A Chicago Public School teacher who died of COVID-19 last week is being remembered as friends continue to raise money for her family.
Friends started a GoFundMe page for the family of Olga Quiroga. The goal was to raise $10,000 to help pay for funeral expenses and medical bills. As of now, more than $9,000 has been donated.
Quiroga taught first grade at Funston Elementary School and had just started the new school year when she contracted the coronavirus. Just days into fall quarter, Quiroga was hospitalized with symptoms of COVID-19. She was put in a medically induced coma and intubated on Sept. 19, according to her daughters.
Quiroga died last week the day after her 58th birthday of respiratory failure and novel coronavirus, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office, which also noted diabetes.
Quiroga grew up in Mexico, and always wanted to be a teacher ever since she was a child. She moved to the United States and cleaned houses for $50 a week while going to school, learning English and obtaining her GED. In the early 1990s, she started working for CPS as a paraprofessional. She later earned a bachelor’s degree from Chicago State University.
According to the Tribune, a student teaching program through Chicago State placed Quiroga in Lois La Galle’s classroom at CPS’ Inter-American Magnet School in 2000. Quiroga later became a mentor herself to many younger teachers.
“Having her in my classroom helped me become a better teacher, because she has such an incredible instinct for working with children,” La Galle said. “Just this genuine, deep down, authentic respect and love for the students that informed everything she did and it was inspiring to have her there working with me.”
Quiroga was hired to stay on at the school.
Bilingual education was especially important to Quiroga. Her colleagues said she devoted her career to helping immigrant students and families, and her support and advocacy went beyond the classroom.
“She was never intimidated by authority or school policy,” La Galle said. “When she saw a wrong being done to a child or a child’s family...whenever she would see an injustice being done that could be fixed and should be fixed, she never hesitated for a moment to advocate.”
A daughter said working for CPS was a dream of her mother’s and that she fulfilled that dream. All three of Quiroga's daughters went to Chicago Public Schools.
“She wanted to keep us grounded. She always wanted to keep us humble," said Giovanna Quiroga, the middle sister. "She wanted us to appreciate an education because for her, moving to Chicago and working for CPS, that was her dream and she fulfilled it and she wanted us to be in the same system.”
Gladys Quiroga Watts, the oldest of Quiroga’s three daughters, said “My mom was a fighter and she’s still a fighter up in heaven right now. She’s still going to make a difference.”
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According to the Tribune, her family believes it was her very dedication to her students that placed her in the path of the coronavirus. In recent weeks, she had only left the house to stop by the school, most recently to distribute supplies several days before school started.
CPS said contact tracing indicated she had spent more than 15 minutes with one person at Funston, and that that person is in quarantine. No other cases at Funston had been reported as of Monday, according to CPS.
In addition to her three daughters, Quiroga left behind four grandchildren, ages 9 months to 14 years.