As students filed into Sierra Madre Elementary School’s (SMES) auditorium seats in the early-morning, any passerby might’ve mistaken it for their regular Monday school-wide assemblies — maybe to celebrate the start of the school year. Older students sat in the balcony; younger ones spilled onto the stage for lack of open seating. Others sat in rows, making faces at each other, scolded by their teachers to behave.
But Wednesday morning’s assembly was different.
They’d be read “Home: A Story of Resilience,” by author Carrie Barnes, a book they’d read last year at the outbreak of the Eaton fire. Barnes had written it to help her own son make sense of losing their home in the 2017 Tubbs fire, with one teacher describing the reading as a “once-in-a-blue moon” event.
It was a story about a little boy who’d loved his home, but lost it and felt alienated in his new home. Then, he started to open up, talk to his family and his friends at school for what he was grateful for and return to normalcy.
“My oldest [Brett] was 7, and he had a really, really hard time because — I’m sure you all understand,” Barnes said. When asked who’d lost their home in the fire, more than half the auditorium of K-5th grade students raised their hands.
“It just brings my family such happiness to […] let you know that it does get better over time, and there are other people just like you that have been through it, and we’re in it together,” Barnes continued.
Shortly after the Tubbs fire, Barnes noticed her son had become withdrawn, and with the guidance of a therapist, tried to find a book about the loss of a home to help process his emotions.
But she couldn’t. So, she and her husband left their careers and wrote about their experience.
“It’s important to note that [Carrie] wrote the book because there are no books, and I can say there is no playbook for post-fire, either,” Pasadena Unified School District Superintendent Elizabeth Blanco said. “There’s a lot of information on when you’re going to evaluate and how you get ready for a fire, but with the current climate changes, I think it’s very important that legislators step up.”
Blanco wasn’t surprised at how many students had raised their hands.
According to her, of PUSD’s more-than 13,000 children and families, 10,000 lived in the burn and evacuation zone. 1,400 of PUSD’s 3,000 employees also lived in the burn and evacuation zone; Teamsters Local 986 Business-Representative Michael Leon noted over 60 of his members’ homes were impacted.
Blanco and Leon worked with Teamsters Local 665’s David Svoboda to distribute 600 books that Barnes donated to PUSD schools after Leon learned that SMES Principal Dr. Jodi Marchesso, was looking for activities to help students heal.
LA Fire Justice also paid for another re-printing of 1,000 additional books, which Svoboda called “incredible.”
“In Carrie’s words, ‘We just want the book to get into the little hands that need it,’” Svoboda said.
Following the reading, many students asked Barnes questions – what her experience was like during the Tubbs fire, where her family lived in the aftermath. They also danced, chanting along: “I am respectful; I am responsible; I am safe; I am brilliant; I am creative; I am strong.”
Then, they went back to their lives. Some went back to class; others, to recess.
“It was maybe – not maybe, it definitely was one the best moments of my life,” Barnes said. “Seeing all of those sweet faces out there, it was a mixed bag [but] they’re just so sweet and hopeful, right? […] It shouldn’t be taboo.”
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