Students express mixed emotions on first day back to school since Hurricane Irma

Sleepy-eyed Pinecrest Elementary students took turns reading aloud from their desks early Monday morning after returning from an unexpected 2½-week vacation due to Hurricane Irma-related school closures.

The ordinary environment was a stark contrast to the scene two weeks before when more than 900 Irma evacuees were camped out in the school’s classrooms on inflatable mattresses and blankets.

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Fourth-grade teacher Karen Cole was excited to receive crayon-colored thank you notes from three children who had used her classroom as a shelter.

“This is so sweet,” she said. “I’m glad something good came out of all this.”

Cole spent the morning leading a series of hurricane-related activities where students could share their experiences. 

The exercises were part of a guide provided by the district to help teachers address the hurricane with their students.

Many students spoke of the epic storm like it was a grand adventure.

Arenthious Wright, 9, described what it was like to have floodwaters surround his Immokalee home.  

“It was like being on a beach on an island,” he said. “I wasn’t scared at all because I can swim.”

The best part, Arenthious said, was when the internet started working again.

“It was like Jesus came down and heaven came to life. Like hell just lost,” he said with a smile.

Other students, like Yauquan Robinson, 10, expressed a more fearful outlook.

“I felt so scared. I thought I was not going to have a house to live in,” he wrote.

On Marco Island in southern Collier County, where Hurricane Irma made its second Florida landfall, the island’s charter high school, Marco Island Academy, marked its first day back with a ceremony and what MIA principal Melissa Scott called a “Cat 4 Continental” breakfast. After brief remarks by Scott, a special flag was raised over the school.

“A resident — he didn’t want his name used — stopped by the school before the storm and gave us this flag,” Scott said. “It flew over our bases in Iraq and Afghanistan. He assured me our school would come through the storm, and we could raise the flag after Irma passed.

“We just want to welcome everyone back. I feel truly blessed,” she said. “The flag is supposed to represent unity and bring us all together.”

Scott said the flag had gone with her as she fled from Irma’s wrath.

“I drove and drove, looking for a hotel room,” and ended up in North Carolina. “This flag was my talisman. I kissed it every day.”

After she spoke, MIA junior Jay Cartwright walked to the flagpole and, with little fanfare, tugged the rope that hoisted Old Glory into the bright blue sky, now the veteran of one more battle. After he tied off the flag atop the pole in front of the school, he pumped his fist and called “America!” drawing a round of applause from his fellow students.

“It gives a sense of normalcy I’ve been missing — and I’m tired of working for my dad’s company for free,” he said.

Other students have been helping out with relief efforts, putting in volunteer hours in Goodland, Everglades City and 6-L Farms, all hard-hit by Irma.

Given the circumstances, the MIA staff has taken to calling the school’s survival with hardly any damage the “miracle on Marco,” Scott said, marveling at the school’s escape.

“Crazy as it sounds, FEMA was using us as a staging area. I think the trees really sheltered us," she said. "I guess we have waterfront property now.”

To get an idea of how vulnerable MIA was to Hurricane Irma, look at on the map. It sits on a skinny isthmus at the extreme southern edge of Marco Island, less than a quarter-mile of low-lying mangrove swamp separating the school’s campus from open water.

But while nearby Goodland was devastated, with 4 feet of water in some buildings and trees and debris littering the landscape, MIA survived with remarkably little damage, even though the school’s buildings are modular pre-fab units, essentially mobile homes serving as classrooms. 

Before the ceremony, and afterward as they ate their breakfasts, the students sat or stood on the school’s raised, wood-planked central courtyard, caught up with their friends and traded storm stories.

Senior Connor Heidemann told Assistant Principal Amber Richardson he had been accepted into the Philharmonic Youth Orchestra, and got a hug in return.

At Everglades City School on Monday morning, Counselor Carolyn Rambosk said it’s important that adults be sensitive to the spectrum of reactions children have to the hurricane.  

“Some kids are over it already. Some kids have been displaced,” she said. “Everybody has their own story, and we will let them talk about their story as they talk about it.”

Everglades Principal Jim Ragusa said he lost his home to Hurricane Andrew 25 years ago, and he understands what many of the children are going through. 

He had already seen one child crying that morning. 

Above all, students are in need of emotional care, he said.

“Schools are more than curriculum, it’s more than testing,” he said. “If you love the kids every day, the rest of the stuff takes care of itself.”