In the early hours of Saturday, April 19, a Loudoun County Public School teacher and a Maryland man were killed when the motorcycle they were riding veered off a Lusby, Md., road and hit a tree.

Amanda M. Lorenzo taught third grade at Potowmack Elementary School in Sterling. This was her first year teaching in Loudoun, according to LCPS spokesman Wayde Byard. Grief counselors visited the school last Monday, he said.

Students and parents are understandably shaken by Lorenzo’s untimely death.

The Calvert County sheriff said Lorenzo, 28, and Eugene R. Kay, Jr., 37, (who was driving) may have been returning from the annual Tiki Bar opening party in Solomon’s Island, Md.

According to this article in Sunday’s Southern Maryland Extra section of the Post, the sheriff said the couple both had hand stamps from the party at the time of their deaths, but it’s inconclusive if they had been drinking because toxicology reports have not been completed.

Before being tapped as principal of the new Steuart Weller Elementary that will be opening this fall, Janet A. Radcliffe was the principal of Potowmack Elementary. She hired Lorenzo, who had moved here from Michigan.

In an e-mail, Radcliffe described Lorenzo:

“I hired Amanda and this was her first year in the classroom. She put herself through college and was absolutely thrilled to be in her new classroom. Amanda was an amazing teacher who took the time to get to know her students really well. Whenever I observed her teaching it was evident that she put a great deal of thought and care into her planning as she worked to help each student meet with success. She always told me how happy she was in Virginia and how much she loved her new job. Whenever she was with her own girls she was the picture of a loving mother.”

Services for Lorenzo were held Saturday in Mount Clemens, Mich.

Here is a link to her obituary in the Macomb Daily.