LOS ANGELES —
Days after losing her home in the same fire that destroyed her Los Angeles elementary school, third-grader Gabriela Chevez-Munoz resumed classes this week at another campus temporarily hosting children from her school. She arrived wearing a T-shirt that read “Pali” — the nickname for her Pacific Palisades neighborhood — as signs and balloons of dolphins, her school’s mascot, welcomed hundreds of displaced students.
“It feels kind of like the first day of school,” Gabriela said. She said she had been scared by the fires but that she was excited to reunite with her best friend and give her hamburger-themed friendship bracelets.
Gabriela is among thousands of students whose schooling was turned upside down by wildfires that ravaged the city, destroying several schools and leaving many others in off-limits evacuation zones.
Educators across the city are scrambling to find new locations for their students, develop ways to keep up learning, and return a sense of normalcy as the city grieves at least 27 deaths and thousands of destroyed homes from blazes that scorched 63 square miles (163 square kilometers) of land.
Gabriela and 400 other students from her school, Palisades Charter Elementary School, started classes temporarily Wednesday at Brentwood Science Magnet, about 5 miles (8 kilometers) away. Her school and another decimated Palisades elementary campus may take more than two years to rebuild, Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent Alberto Carvalho said.
‘There’s a lot of grief’
Students from seven other LAUSD campuses in evacuation zones are also temporarily relocating to other schools.
As Layla Glassman dropped her daughter off at Brentwood, she said her priority after her family’s home burned down was making sure her three children feel safe and secure.
“We have a roof over our heads. We have them back in school. So, you know, I am happy,” she said, her voice cracking. “But of course, there’s a lot of grief.”
Many schools have held off on resuming instruction, saying their focus for now has been healing and trying to restore a sense of community. Some are organizing get-togethers and field trips to keep kids engaged in activities and with each other as they look for new space.
The Pasadena Unified School District kept all schools closed this week for its 14,000 students. It offered self-directed online activities but said the work was optional.
Between 1,200 and 2,000 students in Pasadena Unified School District are known to be displaced but the number could be as high as as 10,000 based on heat maps of where families lived, district Superintendent Elizabeth Blanco said Thursday. The district aims to reopen some schools by the end of next week and have all students back in classrooms by the end of the month.
Schools that did not burn down were damaged by falling trees, debris, ash and smoke that requires extensive cleaning and environmental testing, she said. Hundreds of school staff members citywide lost their homes or had to relocate, compounding the challenges.
Some schools are passing on online learning altogether.
“We all did COVID. We did online instruction. We saw the negative impacts,” said Bonnie Brimecombe, principal of Odyssey Charter School-South, which burned to the ground. Families have been dropping their children off at the local Boys and Girls Club so students can be with each other, she said.
A total of 850 students attend her school and a sister school in Altadena, Odyssey Charter School-North, which emerged undamaged but is still expected to remain closed for months. At least 40% of the students lost their homes in the fire, she said, making it especially urgent for their well-being to find new space and resume school as soon as possible. “At this point we are trying to reopen in-person the very first day that we can,” she said.
Possible long-term effects
Over the long term, disruptions can have profound effects on students’ learning and emotional stability.
Children who experience natural disasters are more prone to acute illness and symptoms of depression and anxiety, research shows.
Keeping students together as the two LAUSD elementary schools are doing is the best approach, said Douglas Harris, a Tulane Univeristy professor who studied the effects of Hurricane Katrina on schools and academic outcomes. But given how many people are relocating because of the fires, he said it’s unlikely all classes will look the same.
“I wonder how many kids are showing up to the new school buildings based on how dispersed they might be,” Harris said. “It’s going to be difficult and it’s going to take a long time.”
‘I feel so out of it’
Among the schools seeking space for temporary classrooms is Palisades Charter High School, which has 3,000 students. Nestled between Sunset Boulevard and the Pacific Coast Highway, “Pali High” is the kind of California school that Hollywood puts on the big screen and has been featured in productions including the 1976 horror movie “Carrie” and the TV series “Teen Wolf.”
Most of the buildings are still standing, but about 40% of the campus was damaged, officials said. The school is looking into other campuses, nearby universities and commercial real estate spaces that would allow all its students to stay together until it’s safe to return, said principal and executive director Pamela Magee. The school delayed the start of the second semester until Tuesday and will temporarily revert to online learning.
Axel Forrest, 18, a junior on the lacrosse team, is planning to gather with friends for online school. His family home is gone and for now they are at a hotel near the Los Angeles airport.
“I feel so out of it, every day. Do I cry? Do I mourn the loss of my home and school? I am trying not to think about it,” he said. The longer school is out, the more idle time his mind has to wander.
“As time is passing I’m realizing this is going to be my reality for the next year or two. I am not going to have anywhere to live permanently for a while,” he said. “And what am I going to do for school now? It’s going to be online but for how long? Where will the temporary campus be? How far away is it?”
At Oak Knoll Montessori, educators have been holding meetups for its 150 students at locations including museums, parks, and a library in an effort for students to find some joy. The fire destroyed the school and several dozen students lost their homes.
The only thing that survived the fire was the school’s chicken coop, and its five chickens.
“The chickens have been a nice beacon of hope,” said Allwyn Fitzpatrick, the head of school. “All the buildings blew up. We have nothing. Not one chair.”
Fitzpatrick has found a potential new location for the school and hopes to reopen before the end of the month.
“We have been trying to focus all our attention on the children and how we can temporarily help them normalize all this. Which is an insurmountable task,” Fitzpatrick said.
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