Los Angeles Schools Reopen to Relief and Worry About Toxins

More Los Angeles-area schools reopened on Thursday for the first time since wildfires swept the region this month and forced officials to shutter buildings in the areas hit by fires.

In the Pasadena Unified School District, six campuses reopened, out of more than two dozen that had been closed since the fire. Roughly two-thirds of the district’s 14,000 students and about half of its roughly 3,000 staff members live in areas that were under evacuation or warnings.

One of the schools was Willard Elementary School in Pasadena, where multiple students and staff members lost their homes, said the principal, Maricela Brambila.

Gabriela De La Torre, 44, made sure to get her daughter, 7, and son, 9, to school on time, even though they are staying with relatives an hour away after losing their home.

“It gives us at least something where my kids feel safe,” she said. “At least something is somewhat back to normal.”

And in many ways, it did look like a normal school day. One little boy’s backpack bounced as he ran toward the blue doorway of his school. The crossing guard, wearing a neon cap, directed traffic. Parents congregated outside after drop-off to chat.

But there were also signs that things were different. It was, as Ms. Brambila put it, a day just to reconnect. The parents who usually disperse by 8:15 a.m. lingered until nearly 9, catching up. Inside the kindergarten classroom of Cherie Wood, students painted at easels, played with blocks on the rug and rocked a baby in a cradle.

“We’re starting with play because this is how children best process,” Ms. Wood said.

One girl asked Ms. Wood how to write, “I love you, Ms. Nicole.” She wanted to make a card for the classroom’s teacher-in-training, who lost her house in the fire and had not yet returned to school.

Even as more schools reopen, not everyone is feeling relief.

While many parents and teachers said they were grateful for the return to normal routines, others worried dangers still linger in schools near burned areas. Officials have kept areas of Pacific Palisades closed off, in part because of toxic ash and chemicals, and parents are concerned not enough is being done to make sure the air is safe for children coming back.

Some felt it was too soon to ask students who had lost everything to focus on math class.

In areas hit by the Palisades fire, nine Los Angeles Unified district schools were temporarily relocated. Five returned to their campuses and two were still closed on Thursday.

Alisa Rodman’s two daughters — Delancey, 10, and Reese, 7 — go to a school, Canyon Charter Elementary, that survived the fire but is near the perimeter of the burn zone. Classes have been held virtually, an unwelcome reminder of the Covid pandemic, when Delancey’s kindergarten switched to remote learning.

Still, Ms. Rodman, 40, is not sure if she wants her daughters to go back to a school so close to the fire’s ruins. For her, the situation conjures memories of 9/11 and the toxic waste that sickened residents in Lower Manhattan.

“I would love nothing more than to be able to send them to their sweet little school and see their teachers and their friends and know that for six hours a day they’re in caring hands and learning,” Ms. Rodman said. But, she added, “Do I think L.A.U.S.D. is rushing to open school before it’s possibly safe? Absolutely.”

Parents have still not been told for certain when Canyon will reopen. At a virtual meeting with Canyon parents, staff and district administrators on Tuesday night, officials attempted to reassure parents that the school buildings would be safe and free of ash, noting they had hired an industrial hygienist and outside consultants.

“We feel like they’re ready to go,” said Carlos A. Torres, the director of the district’s Office of Environmental Health and Safety.

Wildfires can harm children’s health long after the blaze is extinguished. Young people are more vulnerable to air pollution, and can suffer lingering trauma after experiencing destruction and deaths in their communities.

Some families would prefer that the school relocate students to other campuses, farther from the burn zone. And some are considering leaving. Andrew Ferrone, a Canyon parent who lives in Venice, is weighing whether to enroll his two daughters, 7 and 4, in another school.

“Educating your child is about your most important priority — after their safety,” Mr. Ferrone said. “And to have that up in the air really throws everything up in the air.”

The Pasadena district has not yet announced a specific timeline to open the rest of its schools but has said it will all be open by the end of the month. Dayonna Patterson, a math teacher at John Muir High School, which does not have a reopening date, said the uncertainty was the least of her concerns.

Ms. Patterson was grappling with her own grief at what her community had lost. She was trying to think about how to be open with her students, to share their pain, without breaking down herself.

“I don’t know what to do, I don’t know what to say,” she said. “I’m lost.”