Fires scorched campuses across Los Angeles. Many schools are seeking
places to hold classes
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[January 17, 2025]
By KRYSTA FAURIA, JOCELYN GECKER and CLAIRE RUSH
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Days after losing her home in the same fire that
destroyed her Los Angeles elementary school, third-grader Gabriela
Chevez-Muñoz 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.
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.
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Los Angeles Unified Superintendent Alberto M. Carvalho greets
students from Palisades Charter Elementary School upon their arrival
at the Brentwood Elementary Science Magnet school in the Brentwood
section of Los Angeles on Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2025. (AP
Photo/Richard Vogel)
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.
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. The
physical and mental health impacts put them at greater risk of
learning loss: Absences can undermine achievement, as can the
effects of trauma on brain function.
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.
___
Gecker reported from San Francisco and Rush reported from Portland,
Oregon.
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