Pinay teacher newly arrived in US, dies in car crash

MANILA, Philippines – Fate, it seemed, had other plans for this Filipino teacher. Twice her leaving for the United States hit a snag, and when she finally made it to Maryland in time to start a new teaching job, a car crash took her life and her dreams of beginning a new life in America.

Erlinda Camitan Leuterio was a special education teacher among 92 Filipinos hired by a county public school in Maryland to start teaching this school year, ABS-CBN’s North America News Bureau reported in the ABS-CBN News website.

Most of the other teachers arrived in July. Leuterio, 58, kept running into problems.

“Friends here say, in retrospect, fate seemed to hold her back from leaving,” ABS-CBN said.

An “undisclosed visa problem,” it said, delayed her initial plans. On the day Leuterio was set to leave, there was another snag – her airline ticket was not fully paid.

Still, Leuterio had enough cash on her to settle the amount and on Aug. 22, she landed in the US, just in time for her to report for work at the High Bridge Elementary School in Bowie, Maryland on Aug. 25, Rodney Jaleco of the ABS-CBN bureau reported.

On Aug. 28 – three days before classes were to open – Leuterio attended a parents’ meeting that evening. It was the last time her colleagues saw her alive.

At around 8:30 p.m., as Leuterio was on her way home in a car pool with companions Rose Taguba, her husband and their child, a vehicle hit their car near the intersection of Livingston and St. Bernabas roads, ABS-CBN said.

The crash killed Leuterio and the driver of the other vehicle, who was reported to be a male teenager. The Tagubas and their child were reported to be out of danger.

Before that tragic night, Leuterio had told her housemates, also teachers, that she wanted to go home, that she missed her husband Roger and their two grown-up children. She was planning to have her husband follow her to the US soon, especially since he is alone in the house.

Leuterio was a former teacher at the Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila and held three masteral degrees. In the few days that they had known her, Leuterio’s co-teachers found in her a “very kind” and “generous” person who was instantly liked by school officials.

Leuterio and the 91 Filipino teachers were hired by Prince Georges County public schools. Being a SPED teacher, Leuterio was supposed to teach autistic children, ABS-CBN said.