In Shock, Teachers Downplay Tragedy

Stunned parents and teachers grappled Tuesday with how to explain the inexplicable to children.

As they reviewed disaster plans and struggled to calm their own emotions, school officials confessed that they were mostly at a loss as to how to help youngsters cope with the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington.

“I’m shaken,” said Supt. James Fleming of the Capistrano Unified School District. “We are concerned as to how children react to this.”

Karen Loveless, a Westside mother, felt helpless to answer her fifth-grade son’s frightened query: “Are we going to go to war?”

“I’ll go, if I have to,” he said.

The sentiments of Fleming and Loveless were shared by scores of other parents and school officials. Many indicated, that they wanted to limit discussions about the tragedy to the bare minimum and keep the day as normal as possible, even though they realized it was next to impossible.

Still, at the private Crossroads School of the Arts and Sciences in Santa Monica, middle school students discussed their sadness about the attacks, turning up the volume on a radio to hear bulletins during science class.

Other districts beefed up security. The Long Beach Unified School District put more guards on patrol and asked city police to maintain a visible presence on campuses.

But, with few exceptions, schools in the Southland conducted classes as usual. Many principals, teachers and rabbis said they wanted parents and students to view schools as a calm haven on a day when fiery images stirred strong fears.

Many schools canceled field trips, after-school activities and sports practice. The Los Angeles Unified School District and some districts in Orange County canceled Tuesday evening school board meetings.

Los Angeles Unified ordered that schools maintain “a normal instructional day.” Teachers were told to turn off television sets in classrooms.

“Young children who view hours of terrorist attacks, particularly replays of the bombing attacks, fires and human suffering, are highly at risk for psychological trauma,” Supt. Roy Romer warned in a bulletin sent Tuesday morning to the 732,000-student district’s schools and offices.

“Our first concern is safety,” Romer said in an interview. “Our second objective is to continue to educate kids today. The terrorists’ objective is to interrupt life. We’re not going to let that happen.”

At Palms Middle School, history teacher Carol Van Dyke said she allowed students to watch TV for a short time until she received notice that the set should be turned off. She switched to radio.

“I thought that sounded right,” she said. “These kids are young enough, you never know who will be upset.”

Another history teacher, Diane Bulens, received a visit from her principal, who wanted to know how the students were doing.

“I said the teachers are pretty shaky,” Bulens said. “She told the kids to take care of the teachers too.”

Many teachers tried not to dwell on the attacks.

‘They’re Running Into Places With Airplanes’

As school let out, some students seemed to know little about the day’s events.

“Aren’t they throwing bombs from famous places or something?” asked Keyana Franklin, 11.

“They’re running into places with airplanes,” said her friend, Erin Ricketts, also 11. “I heard California may be next. I was so scared because my mom works on a big building on Wilshire.”

Some schools closed as an extra precaution. La Canada High School, just down the road from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, was evacuated soon after 9 a.m. at the suggestion of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. It was expected to reopen today.

The Westside Waldorf School in Santa Monica and Temple Emanuel Community Day School and Hillel Hebrew Academy, both in Beverly Hills, also chose to send children home.

But these schools were the exceptions.

Rabbi John Rosove, senior rabbi at Temple Israel Day School in Hollywood, and Principal Eileen Horowitz greeted children at 8 a.m. when they gathered on the yard. Rosove estimated that three-quarters of the school’s 150 pupils showed up for their classes in kindergarten through sixth grade.

“We impressed on them that this was a terrible thing that happened and told them we believe we are safe here,” Rosove said. “We said to them, ‘We care about you and will protect you.’ ”

Describing Attacks in Children’s Terms

Jenny Skoble skipped work to stay at home in the Hollywood Hills with her 5-year-old son, Eli, who started kindergarten at Temple Israel last week. She was fearful that “any sort of Jewish institution is an obvious target.”

They watched TV for a while Tuesday morning, but after seeing the fire in the World Trade Center towers, Skoble turned the set off.

“At his age of development, he maybe doesn’t quite distinguish between reality and fantasy,” she said.

Other parents indicated that their children put the attacks in cartoon or comic-book terms. Elizabeth Sierra reluctantly took her son, Joseph, 5, to kindergarten at Castle Heights Elementary School in the Beverlywood section of Los Angeles.

Beforehand, they had watched the television coverage, and Joseph asked: “How many bad guys are there? Is there a hero yet?”