VAN NUYS : Students Reach Out to Young in Oklahoma City

The two disasters had nothing in common--and everything in common.

One was natural, the other man-made. One hit a whole county, the other one block.

Yet, they both struck indiscriminately, and with an unforgiving fury that altered their nearby landscapes--both physical and emotional--forever.

So when the bomb exploded in Oklahoma City two weeks ago, the fallout reached a school in Van Nuys. It immediately reminded students of last year’s Northridge earthquake.

Talking about the tragedy in class was not therapeutic enough. The students at St. Elisabeth had to put their feelings down on paper, and also hoped to establish contact with affected youngsters. And this week, nearly 300 letters from students in grades one through eight were mailed to schools in Oklahoma City.

“Although I don’t know you, I know how you feel or what your feelings are after that terrible bombing,” wrote seventh-grader Melissa Balam, who had to vacate her Van Nuys apartment building for a few weeks because of quake damage.

“Living in California, you sort of get used to coping with natural disasters. But that doesn’t stop me from feeling scared and unsafe.”

Second-grader Melissa King was equally emotional.

“I know you were scared,” she wrote. “I was scared, too. I had a disaster in my place, too.”

Sister Barbara Schamber, the Catholic school’s principal, said the fact that so many young children were killed in the Oklahoma tragedy also affected the reaction at St. Elisabeth.

“They relate to each other as young children,” Schamber said. “They expect us to die, but they never expect each other to die.”