Among the thousands of structures destroyed in the Eaton Fire was Odessey Charter South, a small middle school in Altadena with students from transition Kindergarten through 8th grade.
Bonnie Brimecomb, the school’s principal, said half of the students had their homes destroyed by the fire.
“They've lost everything,” she, told KNX News. “And usually what we can say is just come back to school. It's a safe, consistent place for you to be, and unfortunately, now they lost their home and they lost their school.”
She said the school has already gone through so much in the last few years.
“We've just come through COVID. We were able to find our way back up,” she said. “We were able to support all of our students and get our test scores to some of the highest in the area and then here we are, heading into our winter break, enjoying our family time. And we had a beautiful community event as we headed out where we were able to give service back to our community and raise money and a canned food drive for the Pasadena Humane Society, and then we can't come back to school.”
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Still, Brimecomb said the school is ready to support their students during this difficult time.
“So what we're trying to do is to get back face to face with them and at least provide that for them, provide that safe, loving place where they can see all their familiar teachers, all their friends, and at least have that be present for them,” she said.
A GoFundME was created to help the school. You can find it HERE.
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