By:LAURA LANE
Long Beach's public elementary schools have been working hard to help students express their questions, anxieties, and fears relating to the inexplicable tragedies of Sept. 11.
Although many children are too small to engage in a long discussion, they have found avenues to express themselves through artwork, fundraising and letter writing, encouraged by the support of the Long Beach administrators and teachers.
The day after the tragedy the district's crisis center became active in all Long Beach schools. Guidance counselors, social workers, psychologists and school nurses went into the classrooms to speak to the children about their feelings.
For the first few days, a room was set aside for children who were feeling uncomfortable or for those that had questions. Now the children have been told they can have access to any guidance counselor or school administrator to help in any way that is needed.
School officials felt that in addition to talking, the students needed to express themselves in other ways.
Lindell's third graders cut paper hands out of construction paper and then wrote a special message.
The messages on the hands reveal just how much the tragedy has affected the children. One hand reads, I hope that they are up in heaven. Another one states, I wouldn't have blew down the towers. I would have talked about it.
The art department, led by Amy Lynn, has been particularly diligent in helping the students to get in touch with their feelings. Lynn encouraged the students to draw anything they wanted to about the attack.
It was therapeutic because while they were drawing they were talking, getting the story straight, she said.
West Elementary School has been playing patriotic music throughout the day. Principal Sandra Schneider continues to watch the children closely looking for any signs that they might need to talk.
We could see the smoke from our building, she said.
She said the first week the older students seemed nervous and anxious but the staff never discouraged them from talking. A memo was sent home for children to wear red, white, and blue on Friday. Every child did so it.
You can see a definite feeling of unity coming from the students, she said.
Schneider is getting ready for the next phase, which will entail helping children deal with parents and relatives that leave to serve their country. At present she is putting together an Internet pen pal program. She thinks that having a pen pal in California will benefit the children from both states. She is also reaching out to the parents. On October 11th, there will be a parent workshop titled, How to deal with tragedy with your children. Schneider thinks that it will be crowded.
Brenda Young, the new principal at Lido Elementary School, has instructed the teachers to allow the kids to express their feelings in the classrooms and encourage conversation. A packet was sent home to parents and given to the staff the day after the tragedy. It included suggestions on ways to help children deal with tragedy.
Lido Elementary is decorated in red, white and blue and all grades have made flags, which are displayed in the windows of the school. Children in the older grades have written letters to President Bush, the firemen, police and EMT workers. For a dollar, one can sponsor a red, white and blue hand, which is made of construction paper.
For every dollar donated the child will sign the name of the contributor onto the hand, Young said.
Money raised will go to the families from the school who have lost people, and to America Cares.
The hands will be displayed throughout the holidays.
The kids really wanted to do something, Young said. We can't be down there picking up the debris or passing buckets.
When you walk into East Elementary School you have to pause by the gigantic flag made entirely of construction paper hands. All of the children made a hand to contribute to the unique flag. The hands make the flag appear to be waving. This is just one example of Principal Ronni Reimet's idea to give the children different ways to express themselves.
Right now we are doing small things, she said. The most important thing for us is that we don't want the kids to feel powerless.
The third and fifth graders have had opportunities to write about their feelings. Some have written letters to the rescue workers and the families of the victims. Others have written to Bush passing along their opinions.
We've been talking about a memorial, Reimet said. We might plant a tree.
The tragedies have given many children a newfound interest in geography.
They seem to have a heightened curiosity, art teacher Lynn at Lindell said. The kids keep looking at the map.
Schneider said her ultimate goal is to have the children continue to talk more about being an American.
