No amount of writing can fully describe or capture the amount of heartache felt by the family of Miss Meadows or the countless students and staff members she has positively impacted. Even though her life ended way too soon, she was still able to reach many hearts and uplift many spirits. Kelsey Meadows attended, graduated and, as of 2012, has been substituting at Taft Union High School where she has been a respected and loved member of our entire community. Regretfully, she was one of the 58 people who lost their lives to the Las Vegas tragedy.

Whenever the school announced the conformation everyone feared to the students, we could feel the ambience change when entering the campus. “In situations like these we need to  be a little more perceptive of others, and how they are coping,” Campus Supervisor and long-time friend Kim Fields explained. When a tragedy like this strikes, everyone is going to grieve differently, so compassion, patience, and the basic consideration of other people’s feelings are always the key things to remember in situations like these.

Though Miss Meadows’s life was cut short, it was enough time for her to impact many students at Taft High, where she substitute taught. She was a quiet and caring human being who wanted nothing more than to motivate students not to give up and to encourage them. Kim Fields shed some light on the kind of person Miss Meadows was, “Kids said she was nice, sweet, kind, compassionate… ‘I knew she cared about me. She also helped me with math. She always told me to never give up’ is what I kept hearing.”  Miss Meadows left this world with an inspiring legacy behind her. “When something like this happens, it brings out the best in people.” stated Fields. People try to find ways to comfort one another in these situations. It brings the community together as a whole to find a way to cope by uplifting each other, just as Miss Meadows uplifted the people around her.