Room 10 Celebrates War’s End : The Third-Grade Class at Gardner Elementary Savors ‘Happy Ending’

Third-graders in Room 10 at Gardner Elementary School threw a party last Friday.

“Because it’s St. Patrick’s Day and we won the candy sale,” explained Martha Lozada, 8. She needed to be reminded of the third cause for celebration. “And the war is over.”

The party was also occasion for teacher Barbara Desforges to review lessons studied over the past weeks. “What’s a Scud?” Desforges asked students. “What’s a missile? What does a sortie mean?”

“Soldiers. Iraqis. Miles,” the class guessed, wrong each time. They wiggled and snuck looks at a green cake decorated with a frosted leprechaun.

The war in the Persian Gulf is already less vivid to these children than the saint who chased snakes out of Ireland. And that’s how it should be, said Desforges, who organized last week’s triple celebration in part to mark her students’ return to a normal childhood.

“The children have been bombarded by the war,” Desforges said, scurrying around the classroom to inspect the yellow ribbons and balloons and green party favors. She was dressed in a blouse dotted with shamrocks. “They need a happy ending. Now we can move on to spring and to a new life.”

For the 650 students at Gardner Elementary School in Hollywood, the Persian Gulf War was very real and very scary. A majority of them are immigrants who, together, represent 36 different countries and speak a total of 20 languages.

“So many of my children have seen things in their home countries--terrorist type attacks, bombs, Chernobyl--that when they see things like the war on television, it means a lot to them. It is not a distant event,” said Principal Monica Friedman.

“I didn’t like it,” said Emilio Rossal, a 9-year-old from Guatemala who is in Desforge’s class. “I’ve seen people get killed too much.”

Nearly a third of Gardner’s students come from the Soviet Union, Friedman said. Many of them are Jewish, with friends and family in Israel.

Shy Bella Tolmatsky, a 9-year-old from Russia, exploded with passion when asked about her friends in Israel. “I would kill myself if they die,” she said.

To help children deal with such intense emotions, Desforges turned the war into a geography lesson about the Middle East. The children clipped pictures and articles about the region and made a collage. They learned about camels and Arab traditions. They sent valentines and letters to the 353rd Tactical Fighter Squadron of the U.S. Air Force.

But nothing seized their imaginations quite like a letter they received from Lt. Col. Richard D. Shatzel, informing them that the unit flew a jet nicknamed the Warthog. “It has a ferocious-looking, ugly face!” recalled Daquita Bailey, 8, during the review session before the party cake was cut.

During the war, the class became a cheering squad for the Warthog, more formally known as an A-10 fighter jet. It is armed with cannons that fire missiles at enemy tanks and earned its nickname from its large, bulbous nose.

Gabi Groisman, a talkative 9-year-old from Israel who worried that his Israeli grandparents would be bombed, had drawn a picture of a Warthog downing an Iraqi bomber. “Nice work, Wart Hog,” said a blurb coming from a tank in the drawing.

During the party, though, Desforges reminded the children of the human toll of weapons like the Warthog. She also pointed out that the kind of friendships forged in the multiethnic school may one day help avoid war.

“Do we feel sorry about the damage?” she asked. Yes, replied the class in chorus.

“We have learned that the Iraqis are people just like us,” Desforges said. “It’s nice that we learned about the Middle East, that we’ve learned to value Arabs.”

Peace and partying, though, failed to dispel the hatred children expressed for the villainous Saddam Hussein, whose most terrible sin in their eyes may have been the deaths of animals caught in the oil spill.

“Saddam is a big supid fat . . . plus a bully,” wrote Rose Arma, a 9-year-old Iranian, in a journal assigned during the war. “Lots of birds, crabs, swans, fish, whales and sharks were killed.”

Some children talked last week of their nightmares about Hussein. “I had a dream that this big missile came down, and my father was in the war. And there was this big giant, and it was Saddam Hussein walking like Frankenstein,” Daquita Bailey said, moving her arms like the monster.

“I had dreams my parents were in the war, and there was this Scud missile, and they got dead,” said Moneer Yaquibi, 8, who has lived in India and Afghanistan. “And when I woke up I hugged them.”

Brian Kim, a 9-year-old from Korea, said he was going to fight for the United States when he grew up--until he heard that one soldier in the Persian Gulf had to eat a goat’s brain.

“It’s true, it was on the news!” Doris Kate Villatoro, 9, swore. “Goat eyeballs, too.”

The children agreed on one thing. “I hope there’s no such thing as war,” Gabi said.

“Yeah,” said Ryan Reinoehl, 8, whose picture of a scared soldier with hair standing on end was still on the class wall. “Why did man have to create it?”

None of the children had an answer.

But it wasn’t long before they were eating green cake, singing, and playing games like Candyland. “Happy St. Patrick’s Day!” Gabi said.