A helicopter flew over Alhambra’s Granada Elementary School Saturday evening, warning nearby residents to stay inside.
Three miles south, in Monterey Park, at least 11 people lost their lives that night in the deadliest mass event since the Uvalde, Texas school shooting last year.
Just two blocks away from the Star Dance School tragedy, sits Ynez Elementary. It’s one of Alhambra Unified School District’s 13 grade schools, four of which serve Monterey Park residents.
But, as the community comes to grips with unthinkable tragedy, what officials at AUSD — one of four school districts that serves Monterey Park — want to emphasize is not the hurt, but the healing.
It’s healing that has to begin immediately in the predominantly Asian and Latino community. How can students process the trauma they are seeing on television and social media? Afterall, the shooting ravaged their own neighborhood on a Luna New Year weekend meant to be celebrated.
Instead, said Toby Gilbert, a spokesperson with AUSD, students run the risk of being traumatized over and over — by memories of those helicopters and by bombardment of images from the tragedy.
But, AUSD is not new to managing diverse expectations, Gilbert said. The school district of more than 15,000 students in grades K-12 has community coordinators who work with families who do not speak English at home. There are 17 home languages spoken, she added.
Nor is AUSD a stranger to trauma, Gilbert said, as she shared stories of district parents who struggled with day-to-day issues such as tough living conditions, job loss and confusion about how to help their struggling students.
“Our kids are just really brave,” Gilbert said as she started to cry.
What brought on the tears?
“Our kids are predominantly disadvantaged,” she explained. “The COVID economics and the deaths hit our families harder.”
Gilbert said some AUSD students lost parents, grandparents, uncles to the pandemic. Some had to move in with…
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