PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Bache-Martin Elementary School, at 22nd and Brown streets, is less than two blocks from the scene of the Fairmount duplex fire that killed 12 people, including eight children. Bache-Martin students are left dealing with the emotions of a tragedy so close to home.
“As expected, I think that from what we’ve seen, the staff and the students, they’re struggling. The location of the fire is directly near the school,” said Meghan Smith, the Philadelphia School District’s director of counseling services. “Everyone is affected. These kids live in the community, so they knew what was happening just as we were finding out.”
Fifteen to 20 counselors from surrounding schools joined the extended virtual homeroom sessions Thursday to help Bache-Martin students grieve.
“The students have been very open in communicating their feelings,” said Smith. “We are impressed by what they are sharing and how they are really just leaning on each other for support. … They’re struggling, but they have really come together as a school community, and you can just see how strong their relationship is and their bond is.
“They’re really just wrapping their arms around each other.”
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At the Philadelphia Electrical and Technical (PET) Charter High School in Center City, the school community is mourning the loss of 16-year-old 11th-grader Quintien Tate-McDonald. The school’s CEO, Erin Dougherty, said he was among those killed in the fire.
“He knew everyone, and everyone who knew him loved him,” she said. “The sense of shock and disappointment and just sadness is what the kids are feeling right now.”
A large group of PET students met with school counselors Thursday. “Everyone has a good memory of Quintien. There was a lot of sharing of memories,” Dougherty added.
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While students may feel the support of the entire city, Dougherty said many are feeling mixed emotions because losing classmates has become painfully familiar for them. Last year was Philadelphia’s deadliest year on record. In 2021, 562 people were killed, including more than 60 children ages 17 and younger.
“There is some sense of community where city members are rallying together,” she said, “but I do think that they feel very isolated and they feel as though that their peers are dying left and right and no one cares.”