MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
Students in Los Angeles are still reeling from historic fires. Several schools are damaged or even burned to the ground, and many families lost their homes, too. It has been disruptive for young Angelinos who were still trying to recover from the pandemic. NPR's Jonaki Mehta spoke to some who are still out of school nearly three weeks after the fires began.
JONAKI MEHTA, BYLINE: Second-grader Augusta Robbins is counting down the days till she's back in school.
AUGUSTA ROBBINS: I really miss my friends, my teachers and playing soccer.
MEHTA: But that soccer field is covered in ash. Nearly the entire campus of Odyssey Charter South in Altadena has burned to the ground. Augusta's family lost their home, too. They're hopping between temporary housing right now. Augusta says thinking too much about all that makes her anxious.
AUGUSTA: I feel sad about my school and my house and all my friends. Then I kind of just go off and draw because it makes me feel better when I do that.
MEHTA: She pulls up a drawing she had just finished.
What is that?
AUGUSTA: I've been drawing houses lately a lot. I always draw a new house every day.
MEHTA: Her mom, Jennifer O'Kaine, says that for both her kids, Odyssey was the center of their world. They'd lived in Altadena for many years, but they'd just bought their home about a year ago.
JENNIFER O'KAINE: It's a really special school, and a part of our moving to that house was we were, like, three minutes from the school.
MEHTA: Jen's vice president of the school's parent association, and she says, like so many other schools, Odyssey took a hit during COVID and was just bouncing back.
O'KAINE: With just some other incredible parents, I spent about the last three years bringing art and enrichment and field trips and all of that to the schools because they did not have it.
MEHTA: Now, with no school to go back to, she worries about the future of her kids' education.
O'KAINE: This massive disaster and trauma and - on all of our kids and the future and how that unfolds is just a - just giant.
INDIE ROFFMAN: Yeah, it's crazy. Everybody's distracted. And everybody's, like, worried.
MEHTA: Twelve-year-old Indie Roffman has already had her schooling disrupted multiple times.
INDIE: It kind of gives me flashbacks to COVID, and I'm kind of about to go insane.
MEHTA: Indie's family is also displaced while their house is being assessed for damage. It could be months before they can go back. Her school, Octavia E. Butler Magnet, did survive the fires. It was being cleaned up when we met recently. As Indie stood outside the building, she got emotional thinking about its empty halls.
INDIE: I just feel like if I go in there, I'd, like, cry, and I'd feel weird 'cause it's usually super loud and crazy. And it's not. It's going to be quiet.
MEHTA: This century-old school, which sits on a hill at the highest point in Pasadena, is a boon to many in this community. It was recently renamed after the pioneering Black author Octavia E. Butler, who was a student here.
SANDY ROFFMAN: We came here because we are a multiethnic, multi-religion family, and I really wanted my kids to experience a racially diverse working-class, family-based town.
MEHTA: That's Indie's mom, Sandy Roffman.
ROFFMAN: I mean, this was a district that was gutted by redline tactics and integration issues that led to white flight, and they've been through multiple phases of coming back.
NATALIE DAILY: We are a high-need school.
MEHTA: That's the school's librarian, Natalie Daily. She worries the fires have added yet another hurdle.
DAILY: What is this going to do to fragment the population of our school? What is it going to do to our enrollment, which seems like almost a callous thing to even think about, right? But does that mean that it's going to compound the issues that we already have? It's scary.
MEHTA: These are some of the questions families and educators are asking as they figure out when kids will be back in school and what will happen to the ones who don't have a school to go back to. Jen Robbins (ph) says losing their home was unimaginable. But she tears up, thinking about the moment she realized some schools were gone.
O'KAINE: Like, if you let a school go, that is the heart of community - right? - like, where we send our kids, what we build around. It's hard to know how to rebuild when some of the most just vital parts are gone.
MEHTA: The principal of Odyssey South, Bonnie Brimecombe, told NPR her team is working around the clock to find a temporary location. And Pasadena School District has started reopening some schools that survived the fires, but it isn't clear how long it'll be until things feel normal again. And until that happens, students like Augusta Robbins and Indie Roffman are finding some comfort in hanging out with friends again.
AUGUSTA: Hoping I can have a sleepover tonight.
INDIE: We're going to get pizza, and I'm going to see my friends for the first time. And I'm so excited.
MEHTA: Since I last met Indie, it's been announced that Octavia and several others in the district will reopen this week. In Los Angeles, I'm Jonaki Mehta, NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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