Teaching Students About Homeless Is the Day’s Mission

The 550 students at Remington Elementary School stepped inside an unusual classroom Wednesday--a 32-foot trailer for an equally unusual lesson on homelessness.

The Orange County Rescue Mission, which runs two local shelters, brought its trailer to the school as part of an educational outreach program.

As students filed through in small groups, mission workers explained that the trailer typically travels to parks giving information and medical care to homeless people.

But on Wednesday, workers told students that getting an education and staying off drugs will help keep them off the streets.

“Stay away from that stuff,” community outreach assistant Shannon Lathrop said of drugs. “It’s wrong because it’s illegal, and it’s also wrong because it can mess up your life.”

Workers also said they had received reports of children throwing things at homeless people, and asked the students to be more tolerant. None of the students said they or their friends had ever thrown things at homeless people.

After hearing about homelessness, the children received free hygiene packets containing such things as toothpaste, lotion and a prayer booklet.

The mission’s executive director, Jim Palmer, said the packets were meant to broker goodwill among the children, and said he hoped that they might someday work for an outreach organization such as the rescue mission.

Parent Hilda Arias, who was visiting the school, added that the hygiene packets were welcomed gifts.

“We can’t afford to give them children’s shampoo or children’s toothpaste,” Arias said. “We don’t earn enough for this.”