The stoplight on my way to the school is still flashing red, indicating that power is out somewhere nearby. A reminder that, though snow has fallen, dousing the fires that consumed nearly 1,000 houses, just over one week later, life has not returned to normal. And it won’t, not for a long time. For some, not ever.
The Temple Grandin School building wasn’t in the path of the fires, and so it was never in danger, thankfully (though the winds knocked down trees in our grove). But our staff and students were impacted nonetheless. One of our staff members lost her home. Several student and staff families had to evacuate and might still be out of their homes, or if home, might be without power. The rest of us are wondering how to support those more directly affected. Staff is back at school, slowly ramping up for the new semester. We had already shifted our first few school days to virtual learning due to the quickly traveling omicron variant. Little did we know that fire would travel even more quickly, with more devastating consequences. And now we have to determine how everyone has been affected and how we will ride this wave together.
Our school population consists of neurodiverse adolescents, many of whom are on the autism spectrum. They are sensitive souls, prone to anxiety, especially when problems seem too large to solve. Some will drive through eerie, moonscape-like neighborhoods on their way to school daily for many months, maybe years. None of them will forget.
Our students are also resilient. They imagine creative solutions to the challenges they face. They have the potential to contribute answers to many of the problems they see, including the climate issues that contributed to the dry lands that were ready kindling for any spark carried in the 100+ mile-per-hour winds.
For now, we clean up and assess. Our Core Value of Community teaches us, “We are better together.” We will continue to support each other through our wins, and through our losses, whether physical or emotional. And we will come out stronger.