A fundraiser for the family of the beloved Georgia high school teacher killed in a freak accident during a student prank has more than doubled its goal after news of his death went viral.
The GoFundMe campaign has raised more than $200,000 for the family of Jason Hughes, 40, the math teacher who died after he was run over by fleeing teens who’d just covered his yard in toilet paper on Thursday night.
The goal for the fundraiser, which was started to help cover expenses and college funds for Hughes’ two young boys, had initially been set at $75,000.
“Jason’s life was a blessing to so many, and his untimely passing will be indescribably difficult for his wife and two young boys for years to come,” the site states. “Please use this opportunity to come alongside them in their time of immediate need and future planning for his children.”
Hughes, a teacher at North Hall High School, was run over by Jayden Wallace, 18, after he slipped and fell in the street while playfully chasing the teens from his home in Gainesville before midnight on Feb. 5, police said. The Hughes home had been targeted before in the annual student prank.
He was rushed to a local hospital where he died from his injuries. Wallace and four of his pals were arrested. All teens are students at the school.
Hughes’ grieving wife Laura, who also teaches math at North Hall, said that her husband had been excitedly expecting the students to target his house and had been waiting to “catch them in the act.”
She called for charges against the teens to be dropped “to prevent a separate tragedy from occurring, ruining the lives of these students.”
The teens’ social media accounts revealed that they are all close friends with bright futures ahead of them.
Wallace faces up to 15 years behind bars on charges of first-degree vehicular homicide.
Four other co-pranksters – Elijiah Owens, Aiden Hucks, Ana Katherine Luque and Ariana Cruz, all 18 – were also arrested outside Hughes’ home and charged with criminal trespass and littering.
The accident came hours after school officials warned juniors and seniors to end the annual prank war, a school tradition, because students had taken things “too far” in previous years.
