SAN DIEGO (CBS 8/ CNS) - Crisis counselors will be at Miramar Ranch Elementary Thursday to help children cope after witnessing a teacher get hit by a tree branch.
On Wednesday, a kindergarten teacher was seriously injured by a falling tree branch at a Scripps Ranch elementary school.
Miramar Ranch Elementary School instructor Lana O'Shea was walking with her pupils down a stairway on the grounds of the Red Cedar Drive campus when the large eucalyptus branch fell on her shortly after 2 p.m., according to San Diego Unified School District officials.
The father of a kindergartner said his four-year-old girl was just feet away from a Eucalyptus branch that came plummeting to the ground as student were leaving for the day.
"She saw the teacher laying there and thought she was dead. By the grace of God it missed her. It missed all of the kids in the class too," said the father.
Medics took O'Shea to Sharp Memorial Hospital, where she was admitted for treatment of a traumatic head injury, fire Capt. Joe Amador said. No one else was hurt.
A fifth grader whose little sister is in O'Shea's class said she is a beloved teacher.
The victim, who was conscious and responsive following the mishap, was expected to fully recover, SDUSD spokeswoman Linda Zintz said.
School officials planned to send in an arborist to inspect all the trees at the school and remove any other branches that appear at risk of spontaneously snapping off, according Zintz.