More schools in the Los Angeles area have reopened on Thursday for the first time since fires swept the area this month and officials were forced to close buildings in areas affected by fires.
In the consolidated school district of Pasadena, six campuses reopened, than more than two dozen closed by the fire. About two -thirds of the 14,000 students in the area and about half of the staff of the staff live in evacuation or warning areas.
One of the schools was the Willard Elementary School in Pasadena, where many students and staff lost their homes, said Mr. Maricela Brambila.
Gabriela de la Torre, 44, takes care to take her daughter, 7, and son, 9, at school in time, even though they stay with relatives one hour away after losing their home.
“He gives us at least something my kids feel safe,” he said. “At least something is somewhat back to normal.”
And in many ways, it looked like a regular school day. A little boy’s backpack bounced as he ran to his school’s blue door. The intersection guard, wearing a neon lid, directed traffic. Parents gathered outside after rejection for conversation.
But there were also signs that things were different. It was, as Ms Brambila put it, one day only to reconnect. Parents who are usually scattered until 8:15 am They stayed up to almost 9, attracting. In the class of Cherie Wood’s kindergarten, the students painted in the rugs, played with block on the carpet and shook a baby in a cradle.
“We start with the game because this is how the kids are better processed,” Ms Wood said.
A girl asked Ms Wood how to write, “I love you, Ms. Nicole.” She wanted to do a card for class education, who lost her home on fire and had not yet returned to school.
Even when more schools open again, not everyone feels relief.
While many parents and teachers said they were grateful for returning to normal routines, others are worried that the risks are still in schools near burnt areas. Officials have kept the Palisades Pacific areas have been closed, partly because of toxic ash and chemicals, and parents are not concerned not enough to make sure that the air is safe for children returning.
Some thought it was too early to ask the students who had lost everything to focus on the class of mathematics.
In the areas affected by the Palisades fire, nine regional schools were temporarily transferred to Los Angeles. Five returned to their campuses and two were still closed on Thursday.
The two daughters of Alisa Rodman – Delancey, 10, and Reese, 7 – go to a school, Canyon Charter Elementary, who survived the fire, but is close to the perimeter of the combustion zone. The classes were essentially, an undesirable reminder of the Covid pandemic, when Delancey’s kindergarten turned into remote learning.
Still, Ms Rodman, 40, is not sure if she wants her daughters to return to a school so close to the ruins of the fire. For her, the situation is causing memories of 9/11 and the toxic waste that became ill in the Kato Manhattan.
“I would like nothing more than to be able to send them to their sweet school and see their teachers and friends and know it for six hours a day taking care of their hands and learning,” Ms Rodman said. But, he added, “I think Lausd has hurried to open the school before it is probably safe? Absolutely.”
Parents have not yet been said with certainty when the Canyon will reopen. In a virtual meeting with the parents of the canyon, staff and regional managers on Tuesday night, officials tried to reassure parents that school buildings would be safe and free from ash, noting that they had hired industrial health and external consultants.
“We feel they are ready to go,” said Carlos A. Torres, director of the Region’s Environmental Health and Safety Office.
Fires can harm children’s health long after the fire is extinguished. Young people are more vulnerable to air pollution and can suffer from prolonged trauma after the disaster and deaths in their communities.
Some families would prefer the school to transfer students to other campuses, longer than the combustion zone. And some are thinking of leaving. Andrew Ferrone, a parent of the canyon living in Venice, weighs whether he will be enrolled in his two daughters, 7 and 4, to another school.
“Your child’s education is about your most important priority – after their safety,” Mr Ferrone said. “And to have it in the air really throws everything in the air.”
The Pasadena area has not yet announced a specific timetable to open its other schools, but said it will be open by the end of the month. Dayonna Patterson, a math teacher at John Muir Gymnasium, who has no repetition date, said uncertainty was her little concern.
Ms. Patterson struggled with her own sadness in what her community had lost. She was trying to think about how to be open to her students, to share their pain, without breaking herself.
“I don’t know what to do. I don’t know what to say,” he said. “I’m lost.”
