Teachers help students ‘normalize’ life after California wildfires

The wildfires in and around Los Angeles not only disrupted lives, but disrupted education for young Californians.

Thousands of students, as reported by The Associated Press, lost their school buildings to the wildfires and found they were in off-limits evacuation zones. School resumed for some at other campuses not affected by the wildfires as friends reconnected.

Educators have scrambled for weeks to find new locations for education and create new ways to keep learning going. By late January, the city mourned 27 deaths and thousands of destroyed homes from the fires which had burned 63 square miles. Teachers attempted to help students find a sense of normalcy again amidst grief.

Rebuilding schools like Palisades Charter Elementary may take more than two years, according to Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent Alberto Carvalho. Seven other schools in the district were also in the evacuation zone and required temporary relocation of classes.

Palisades Charter High School‘s 3,000 students held temporary classrooms elsewhere. Forty percent of the school’s campus, which has been featured in the TV series “Teen Wolf” and the 1976 film “Carrie,” was damaged in the wildfires. School officials will consider holding classes at nearby universities and commercial real estate spaces.

Many California schools halted instruction altogether and focused on healing and restoring community ahead of lessons. Community events and field trips were organized to engage children in activities.

All schools in the Pasadena Unified School District were closed for its 14,000 students in late January, but self-directed online activities were optional for students. School officials estimated between 1,200 and 2,000 students were displaced but the real number is expected to reach 10,000 according to where families lived on heat maps, District Superintendent Elizabeth Blanco told the AP. The district hoped to reopen schools by early February.

Schools undamaged by fire were damaged by falling trees, ash, smoke and debris that requires cleaning and environmental testing, Blanco said. Hundreds of school staff lost their homes and were forced to relocate.

“We all did COVID. We did online instruction. We saw the negative impacts,” Bonnie Brimecombe, principal of Odyssey Charter School-South, which burned to the ground, said. Students have come to the local Boys and Girls Club to spend time together.

Brimecombe said that at least 40 percent of the students at her school and a sister school in Atladena, Odyssey Charter School-North lost their homes in the wildfires.

“At this point we are trying to reopen in-person the very first day that we can,” she said.

According to the AP, children who experience natural disasters are prone to acute illness, depression and anxiety as revealed by research.

Tulane University Professor Douglas Harris, who studied the effects of Hurricane Katrina on schools and the academic outcome on students, said the best approach with the wildfires is keeping students together.

“I wonder how many kids are showing up to the new school buildings based on how dispersed they might be. It’s going to be difficult and it’s going to take a long time,” Harris said.

Oak Knoll Montessori was destroyed and its teachers have held meetups for 150 students at museums, parks and a library.

“All the buildings blew up. We have nothing. Not one chair,” Oak Knoll Montessori Head of School Allwyn Fitzpatrick said. He found a potential new location for classes and hoped school could reopen by the end of January. “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.”