Just as they did after the national tragedy of Sept. 11, 2001,
local educators grappled today with how to talk with students about
Saturday’s breakup of the space shuttle Columbia.
Ladd Lane Elementary School Principal Bob Hammond said he
planned to give a brief statement to teachers before school started
this morning. After that, it was up to each individual teacher to
decide how to handle the topic in the classroom, Hammond said.
Just as they did after the national tragedy of Sept. 11, 2001, local educators grappled today with how to talk with students about Saturday’s breakup of the space shuttle Columbia.
Ladd Lane Elementary School Principal Bob Hammond said he planned to give a brief statement to teachers before school started this morning. After that, it was up to each individual teacher to decide how to handle the topic in the classroom, Hammond said.
“I’ll tell them there will be a lot of questions. It’s important to approach the disaster from the loss of the astronauts,” he said. “I’m also going to look at resources for the teachers to lean on.”
Some students reacted on their own. Hammond said as walked by the Ladd Lane playground this morning, he saw a girl wearing a red, white and blue T-shirt and holding a bear with red, white and blue on it.
“She told me that that was her memorial to the astronauts on the space shuttle,” Hammond said.
San Benito High School officials had no special plans as of this morning. Principal Karen Schroder said doing something would be more disruptive to students than anything.
“It seems like there’s one tragedy after another,” she said.
Schroder planned to address teachers’ questions at a faculty meeting today. After that, just as with Hammond at Ladd Lane, Schroder said each teacher would decide how to handle questions in classes.
SBHS Director of Student Activities Juan Robledo said he would talk to student representatives today and see what they wanted to do, if anything.
“The event is so tragic,” Robledo said. “When you think about the movie ‘Apollo 13’ and how they were trying to bring home three astronauts and this was seven who died, it’s sad.”
When President Bush ordered all American flags be lowered to half-staff, Hollister City officials came in to lower the city’s five or six flags, said Geri Johnson, deputy city clerk.
A presidential order to lower flags includes federal, state and city agencies, she said.
Churches throughout San Benito County held special services Sunday to remember the astronauts and their families.
St. Augustine Anglican Church on Pacheco Pass Highway, where Hammond is minister, held a special prayer and sang special songs to memorialize the deaths of the seven astronauts, including the Navy Hymn.
