Displaced students try to adjust to new schools, home

Some students and their

families are returning to the Gulf Coast; others will likely stay the rest of the school year.

Some students who came to Southeast Missouri after Hurricane Katrina uprooted them have begun returning home to familiar-but-damaged neighborhoods on the Gulf Coast. Now children made refugees by Hurricane Rita are showing up in the region.

The Kelly School District at Benton welcomed nine students left homeless by Hurricane Katrina last month. Now it's preparing to enroll students from Hurricane Rita, which damaged homes and businesses along the Texas coast last weekend.

Kelly superintendent Don Moore said his district expects to enroll as many as 30 children from several Hispanic families who moved into a nearby Red Cross-operated camp Thursday. Moore said school officials plan to go to the camp on Monday to enroll the students.

The children and their families are among 54 residents of the hard-hit Port Arthur, Texas, area who will be housed temporarily at the camp, said Mary Burton, who heads up Red Cross operations in Southeast Missouri.

The camp still houses 15 refugees from Hurricane Katrina.

Forty refugees from Hurricane Katrina have stayed at the camp at one time or another over the last month, Burton said.

Left homeless by Hurricane Katrina, students found themselves in Southeast Missouri, where they had to adapt to new classmates, new teachers and the unfamiliar surroundings of new schools.

One month later some students and their families have packed up and headed home.

The Jackson School District, which at one time had 11 Katrina students, already has seen two of its students return to Louisiana. Another is expected to head home next week, said Dr. Beth Emmendorfer, director of special services for the school district.

That would leave the school district with eight students -- seven in elementary school and one in high school.

Emmendorfer and officials at other area schools think more Katrina students will move back to the Gulf Coast in the coming months.

Earlier this month, more than 30 students left homeless by Hurricane Katrina had enrolled in public and parochial schools in Cape Girardeau County.

According to the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, some 1,300 Gulf Coast students were enrolled in about 180 public school districts in the state earlier this month. But that figure doesn't include students whose families enrolled them in parochial schools.

Immaculate Conception Catholic School in Jackson enrolled two kindergartners, a second-grader and a fifth-grader left homeless by the hurricane. At least two of those students soon may head home with their families, said principal Tami Nenninger.

Notre Dame Regional High School in Cape Girardeau also has a Hurricane Katrina student who may soon return to New Orleans.

The student, Gabriela Garcia, 14, fled the city with her family before the hurricane hit. "We thought it would be for three days," she recalled.

But the storm damage sent them on a journey to live with relatives, first in Memphis and then in Jackson. Gabriela misses her pet poodle and her birthday money. Both were left behind in the exodus.

Gabriela, who at one time attended a Catholic school in New Orleans, said she felt at home at Cape Girardeau's Catholic high school.

What's difficult, she said, is not knowing if she'll soon have to say good-bye to her new friends.

Getting a firm count on just how many hurricane refugees are enrolled in area schools is difficult because the number changes almost daily. The latest figures from DESE show the Cape Girardeau School District with only four hurricane students. But local officials said there are actually 11 students enrolled in Cape Girardeau public schools -- seven elementary students, two junior high students and two high school students.

"A week ago we had 14," said Deena Ring, director of special services for the Cape Girardeau School District.

"Some are going back. Some are going other places because of family."

Some families are returning home for employment reasons. Others are going back because relatives have gone home. "They don't want to be separated," Ring said.

DESE's records show only two Katrina students attending Jackson public schools when in reality there are nine. DESE spokesman Jim Morris said his agency encouraged school districts to report the enrollment of hurricane students to the state. But he said there was no mandate.

The Nell Holcomb School District had one student but only for a couple of weeks. She and her family returned to Louisiana in mid-September.

Trinity Lutheran School in Cape Girardeau has two students, one in pre-kindergarten and one in fourth grade.

St. Mary's School in Cape Girardeau has two students.

Cape Christian School had one student, a sixth-grader. But he moved to another school after one day, and the family eventually returned to the Gulf Coast.

Rhonda Young, who teaches sixth grade at Cape Christian School, said it's difficult for students to suddenly find themselves in a new school.

"They've lost their homes. You feel so sorry for them" she said.

Scott City schools had three students from Mississippi, but one student and her family already have returned to their Gulf Coast neighborhood.

Some students, however, expect to stay through the school year.

School officials say it's hard to know just how long some families will remain in their districts.

Many families uprooted by the hurricane don't know themselves, Ring said. "It's hard to see into the future when you've lost everything."

Area schools, churches and charitable groups like the Red Cross and Salvation Army have helped students and families left struggling get back on their feet. "There's been a lot of outpouring of kindness," Ring said.

Schools enrolled hurricane refugees, waiving the traditional requirements for medical and past-school records.

School counselors and special services directors have assisted the students. Schools have provided school supplies when necessary.

Cindy Rhodes, director of special services for the Scott City School District, said area school districts initially worried that they would be flooded with homeless students. But that hasn't happened in her district and surrounding districts.

Many of the evacuees ended up in Southeast Missouri because they had relatives in the area. Others ended up here because of the efforts of the Red Cross, including the operation of camps in Benton and Kennett.

Cape Girardeau's Ring said returning to school was important for the hurricane refugees.

"It is a definite step toward creating normalcy."

mbliss@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 123