Shelbi is a 26-year-old high school social studies teacher in a low-income school district in Georgia.

Last week, while volunteering her time to assist the high school volleyball coach, Shelbi fell and suffered traumatic knee injuries to both knees. She had complete ruptures of her patellar tendons in both knees, and fractured her right patella. She was instantly rushed to the hospital, and had a series of X-rays, followed by an MRI. The orthopedists determined she needed to have both knees surgically repaired or she would be permanently disabled and unable to live a life without a wheelchair or walker.

While Shelbi is employed by a public school district, the district policy determined that she is ineligible for workers compensation due to the fact that she was not “teaching” at the time of her injury. Though she was on the school campus, working directly with students and assistant coaching, the determination is that she was injured “outside of the scope of her employment” as a social studies teacher.

In addition, Shelbi was denied FMLA paid leave because the district determined she was 60 hours short of qualification- that is less than 2 weeks of work hours. She is therefore ineligible for any extended leave.

This young, enthusiastic, and dedicated teacher, who was serving students by assistant coaching on a volunteer basis, now finds herself out of work without paid leave, or any ability to earn income at this time.

On Thursday, September 18th, Shelbi had surgery on both knees, is out of work for a minimum of 3 months unpaid, and will have mounting medical bills which she will have no way to pay due to the fact that she will have no income for at least 3 months as she recovers from extensive surgery on both knees.

Please, please- if you can find it in your heart and budget to donate any amount, Shelbi would be so very thankful. As I’m sure you can imagine, she is beyond heartbroken after sustaining such a horrific injury, but is even more upset at the fact that she now will be overwhelmed in medical debt, and lacks any income for daily living until she can return to work.

Any amount will help. And, of course, your thoughts and prayers are even more appreciated.