Sixth-graders put words to their worries after fire

The words on sixth-grade teacher Donna Teubner’s chalkboard said it all: “ferocious,” “evacuate” and “dangerous.” Her students needed a little help spelling those words but no help using them to describe their experiences during a wildfire that swept their Canyon Country neighborhood.

Four days after the Buckweed fire came within feet of the Leona H. Cox Community School, the flag flew, class bells rang and students dived back into math and writing assignments Wednesday.

Blackened trees and brush ringed the perimeter of the elementary school, where administrators helped firefighters attack the fast-moving fire Sunday with hoses and fire extinguishers.

Their efforts mostly paid off: Embers sparked a fire in an electrical panel and burned out a wall inside a boys restroom; several portable trailers were scorched, as were parts of the lawn on the playground. But almost miraculously, the school survived. So did the homes of the families of its 300 students, although most had to leave their houses. And there were harrowing moments. In all, 15,000 people in the area were evacuated.

Scars from the fire are etched into the landscape: the remnants of one of the 15 homes destroyed were visible a few yards down a canyon, as were gouges from firefighters’ backhoes. Acrid smoke from the fire that burned 38,516 acres still hung in the air.

Children -- many suffering from asthma -- had hacking coughs their first day back, and outdoor recess was canceled.

But for the students and their teachers, returning to the routine of classes, homework and planning for the upcoming Harvest Festival was a welcome reprieve. Schools also reopened Wednesday in the Castaic Union, Newhall, Saugus Union, William S. Hart Union and Santa Monica-Malibu Unified districts and at Topanga Elementary in Los Angeles Unified.

The teachers at Cox provided class time for the students to talk about their experiences, and the Sulphur Springs Union School District made additional counselors and psychologists available.

“We’re trying as close as we can to maintain a regular schedule,” said Principal Laura Banda, who added that only a few students had been referred for extra counseling. “The kids want to get back and see their friends, make those connections and be reassured that everything is OK.”

Such was the case with Jesus Gonzalez, 11, a sixth-grader relieved to end his mandatory two-day vacation to return to his favorite math class and exchange experiences with friends. He and his family had spent the last few days cleaning up ash and debris from their burned-out backyard. While away, he worried not only about his home but also his school. “I was worried because if the school caught fire, then I’d have to go to a different school,” he said.

In Teubner’s class, Jesus wrote an essay about how the family had fled the fire and his dad stopped to pick up his sister at a shopping plaza.

“I saw a lady sitting down crying with her kids,” he said. “She had seen her house burn down, and that made me sad.”

Teubner had instructed her students to write about where they were, what they were doing and what they felt when the fire erupted in their neighborhood.

The students plunged right in, and no one had to ask where to start. Some described seeing the fire approach; others wrote about how they didn’t have time to grab their favorite possessions.

“There were some wonderful stories, and they all had different ways of starting,” said Teubner, who has been at the school 10 years and had to evacuate her home. “I’m seeing writing that is so much more detailed than it has been.”

Another sixth-grader, Alex Hackenberg, 11, also wrote an essay and said he had trouble making sense of it all. “I felt weird,” he said. “I can’t really explain it. It was like, ‘What’s going on, how is this happening?’ ”

Although he loves science and lab experiments, Alex was a bit more ambivalent about returning to school. “I liked having that time off, like to sleep.”

His mother, Debby Hackenberg, said one of the first things she did when the family was able to return home was to drive Alex and son Nick, 8, a third-grader, by the school to reassure them that everything was fine. It is like their second home, she said. Hackenberg is a PTA board member, and even before the fire struck, other parents offered to help her pack and find her family places to stay.

“There is a tremendous sense of family and caring about each other,” she said. Still, she said she wasn’t sure she wanted her children to return to school quite yet. “But when I saw the teachers there to greet them and Ms. Banda hugging everyone, everything was fine.”

carla.rivera@latimes.com