An account of hurricane relief efforts
Learning amid the destruction
“Cat-A-Vans” of NEA leaders delivered books to Gulf Coast schools during Read Across America. The tour through Baton Rouge, La., Beaumont, Texas, and Biloxi, Miss., brought books back to Gulf Coast schools. NEA’s Reading Tour 2006 throughout the Gulf Coast states covered over 2,700 miles, delivered approximately 14,000 books, and visited more than 20,000 schoolchildren.
The weeklong tour culminated in the town of Chalmette, located in St. Bernard Parish, which largely had been missed by the news media spotlight to its higher-profile New Orleans neighbor. Of more than 13 schools in the parish, the former high school has ballooned in size and become a unified school, housing more than 1,600 students in grades pre-kindergarten through 12.
The following is an account by NEA Communications Director Andy Linebaugh, of books delivered on March 2, Dr. Seuss’ birthday:
“We drove south from Baton Rouge to LaPlace and from there to St. Bernard's Parish. We took I-12 to I-10 and then to I610 (exit in the two left lanes) to exit 3. I wasn't prepared. The closer we got to the school, which was about eight miles down the road, the more the area looked like a war zone. Nothing on television could have prepared me for the devastation that lay ahead. Nothing.
The street lights don't work. Stop lights don't work. Imagine, if you can, your house, demolished, and all the remains sitting in your driveway, in a big pile of concrete, wires, wood, sheetrock. Waiting to be taken away. Along the road were signs that read: "House gutting 99cents a square foot." The houses were all marked with ‘X's’ from those who had searched and rescued or recovered.
The conversation in the car ended. At first we were rubber-neckers, like those who slow down at an accident scene, hoping to see "something." Speaking for myself, I felt like an observer at 1,500 feet, untouched by
the human suffering and devastation that had taken place. Then it became painfully obvious of the absolute total devastation.
Block after block after block of destruction, of piles of rubble, of what was left of houses covered in blue tarps. Vans turned on their sides, still covered in the dry muck that was a remnant of the days of water. Eerie, haunting, disturbing. The air was permeated with the smell of mold.
Six months after the hurricane hit, the area is still devastated. Where were the people? Nothing was open. There were some who were searching through rubble, for what, one only can guess. There were guys with cameras, taking picture of the destruction. Insurance investigators?
Later at dinner we discussed it in quiet, hushed tones. Several were visibly shaken by the loss. One can hardly imagine the dreams and nightmares that the students in the one school in the parish - St. Bernard's Unified Parish School - have every night. Speaking of that school, it stood in a lake of water, eight feet high. The event we did would have been under water one week after the hurricane hit.
A kindergarten teacher told her that she has to dissuade her students from digging in the dirt because she is unsure what contaminants the dirt holds. She worries. Yet the spirit of the teachers and the principal was soaring. Whatever it takes. Whatever the conditions, they were going to help the kids.
It may have surrounded by sadness and destruction, but inside those school walls, there was joy, laughter and learning. It was magic. It is an oasis in a desert of despair.
We visited the Lake Pontrachrain Elementary School in Hammond. Hung on walls were signs that read:
School wide expectations
- Be respectful.
- Be responsible.
- Be a problem solver.
- Be safe.
The principal told me that the school of 500 picked up nearly 500 displaced kids from the aftermath of the hurricane, mostly kids at risk. The atmosphere in the school was the same it has been everywhere. There was a sense of hope, of awe, of joy of learning. The kindergarteners were going to have a ‘sleep over’ after school to celebrate Dr. Seuss. They were dressed in their pajamas. So were their teachers.
The teachers were doing what they could, after many of them had lost some or all of what they had. One teacher lost everything on the first floor of her house. But, she told me she hadn't lost her will or desire to help her students learn.
It is emotionally draining – to see the strength of our members, or our teachers and Education Suppport Professionals who are determined to help students learn in very difficult times...”
NEA’s Reading Tour 2006 is the organization’s second action aimed at providing hurricane relief. In September 2005, immediately following Hurricane Katrina, the Association set up a Hurricane Relief Fund for students, teachers and school employees affected by the hurricane. In addition, NEA provided $500,000 in direct aid, set up a toll-free helpline for Gulf Coast school employees and created the NEA Adopt a School Program to match donors with schools and classrooms in need of assistance.
For more information about the Reading Tour, Books Across America and NEA’s Read Across America Day activities and events, visit www.nea.org/readacross and www.nea.org/booksacross.
Have you done your part?
KNEA President Christy Levings has asked each local to donate $1 per member to hurricane relief efforts. Has your local donated? Ask your local president. Make sure it gets done.
Or, make a cash donation. The NEA Foundation is collecting monetary contributions to provide directly to public schools so they can replenish
their materials.
Or, organize a book drive or buy books for school libraries.
Go to www.nea.org/booksacross for details.
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