A married couple who taught at the same school district died of COVID-19.
Grand Prairie ISD district employees Rose Mary Blackwell and Paul Blackwell both passed away on Sunday.
The school district confirmed their deaths in a statement on Monday, writing: "It is with great sadness that we report the passing of two GPISD staff members after a courageous battle with COVID-19.”
"Rose Mary and Paul will be greatly missed. Our thoughts and prayers go out to their family, friends, co-workers, and students both current and former,” the district added.
The couple’s son said his parents were hospitalized for quite some time because of the novel virus. He explained that they died within hours of each other.
Rose was the longest-tenured second-grade bilingual teacher at Travis World Language Academy, according to NBC DSW. She worked there for 20 years and also served as team leader and mentor.
Paul was a PE teacher at Fannin Middle School for five years and coached seventh grade boys’ basketball. Prior to his time at Fannin, he educated youth at Young Men’s Leadership Academy at Kennedy Middle Schoo.
The school district provided counselors on both campuses for staff and the 60% of students attending in-person classes on Monday.
“In a situation like this, we like to send in additional counselors so we can take some of that load off and make sure we can address the needs of both staff and students,” Sam Buchmeyer with Grand Prairie ISD told FOX 4 News.
“When you start to think about it, start to reflect, the numbers of children that she alone has touched coming through the doors of Travis, it’s really a testament,” Buchmeyer added.
The couple’s son said several other relatives are battling the virus and are very sick.
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