Help Courtney Rebuild Her Classroom

Hello! My name is Courtney Simon and I am a kindergarten teacher in Chicago. On Wednesday night around 9:30 pm, an individual broke into my classroom by breaking multiple windows and then proceeded to destroy my classroom for an hour before police arrived to apprehend them. Unfortunately, the majority of the furniture, decor, and all the technology was destroyed in the process. Yes, the school and district can recoup some of the damage through insurance; however, the majority of the things in that room were mine.

I have spent every summer, since I started teaching over 10 years ago, working in order to create the room of my dreams. I believe that environment does play a role in student success and have always strived to make my classroom a safe, calm, and welcoming environment for my students. I also wanted to break from the traditional classroom setup and adopted a flexible seating model. After seven years of teaching in Las Vegas, I moved back to Chicago and am lucky enough to work at a school that makes fundraising easier as well. So now, including working every summer, I was able to fundraise in order to build my classroom up even more.

This is the first summer I took off since I began teaching to focus on my mental and physical health. I suffer from autoimmune disorders and other health problems that, after a very stressful school year, took a turn for the worse. However, after what happened Wednesday night, my summer is now cut short as I try to rebuild my classroom. I still don't know the full extent of the damage, but I know that a lot of my time, effort, and money was destroyed that night. I also understand that my bigger items are expensive to replace, which is why I was told to create this. Any little bit can help me rebuild my classroom.

I am so grateful for all the educators and families who have reached out to me so far and cannot begin to thank you all enough for your support.