In the corridors of La Torre school, there is no longer any trace of mud. The flood destroyed the school equipment on the ground floor of the center, but the floor and walls have already regained their color. They are finally white again, after days of cleaning by workers and volunteers. There are still no children in the corridors, but some mothers in the La Torre neighborhood, one of the areas closest to the city of Valencia affected by DANA, hope that normal classes will resume in a few weeks.
While this Monday other schools have already reopened their doors, in La Torre municipal employees opened boxes and distributed new furniture to the classes, including chairs and tables. Gardeners and haulers replaced the soil in the flower pots, after removing much of the mud that had accumulated in recent days. “It’s a school that has just been built and I think that has contributed a lot to improving the structure. They told us that we will come back in two weeks maximum,” explains Alina, mother of a daughter who studies at the center.
Her daughter Sheyla returned to school today to greet her teacher. This Monday he was walking the streets of La Torre, but it took him several days to leave his home for the first time after the flood that devastated his school. At first he was scared, but he feels better. “I’m bored, but I’m doing well,” says Sheyla, who has already reunited with some classmates after the disaster.
From the first days following the tragedy, Sheyla, aged around six, remembered the work of neighbors and volunteers. He says his mother gave one of them one of her bikes, it was too small and they had it in a garage trying to sell it on a used app. She gave it to one of the people who helped Alina remove mud from a warehouse in a basement destroyed by the flood.
The centers least damaged by DANA began operating again this Monday. The Ministry of Education assures that 22,000 students returned to classes after the break due to flooding and damage caused by the disaster. The 47 schools that opened their doors today have already been disinfected, according to the Consell, to guarantee maximum safety for students and teachers.
From the Stepv union, they wonder if the figures provided by the government of Carlos Mazón are true because they assure that they have visited some centers that had planned to open their doors in Catarroja and which had not started operating this Monday. In addition, they ask the Consell that the cleaning of schools should not be the responsibility of volunteers, teachers and families, but rather that companies specialized in disinfection be responsible for this mission.
The Valencian Government has also created accommodation centers for children and young people who have lost their homes and gone to live in another municipality, or who have studied in centers that will not be able to recover due to the damage suffered , can continue going to classes. Some families affected by this affair and living at zero point of DANA are waiting to benefit from a means of school transport because they are unable to access it.
Guarantee “the maximum possible normality”
“We lost the two cars we had, how do you expect me to take the children to Valencia? I would have to cover a lot of kilometers,” explains Javier, father of a child in fourth grade and another in first grade. His family lives in Benetúser and is waiting for the Town Hall to install a pavilion or facility for him so that he can leave his children there these days, as he and his wife have to return to work.
Pablo José (12 years old) is waiting to return to his school this week. After DANA’s first days, he spent a few days in Picassent with his uncles, while his parents cleaned up the damage caused by the La Torre flood. He had the possibility of staying in a reception school in this municipality, but he refused. He hopes to return to class with his classmates in the coming days in Alfafar.
“I’m used to my class and I felt strange,” says Pablo José, as he helps his parents clean mud from some rags with a pressurized water gun in the middle of the street. Organizations that defend the interests of minors are calling on administrations to allocate resources to analyze the impact of this natural disaster on boys and girls. Likewise, they explain that it is “crucial” that children benefit from “the greatest possible normality”, as Ricardo Ibarra, director of the Children’s Platform, told elDiario.es. For this reason, he insists that maintaining the same school groups and the usual socialization space for minors helps to “relieve stress”.
Teachers are also worried about the future of young people who are studying in the 2nd year of the Baccalaureate this year and are planning to take the Ebau exam this year. They have not taught classes for two weeks and are aware that reintegration in some cases will not be easy after the trauma and emotional consequences of a tragedy that has affected their family and home.
“They are not going to compete on an equal footing with students from the rest of Spain or the wider community,” says Cristina, a teacher at the María Carbonell i Sánchez de Benetúser institute. This center was also unable to open this Monday. Workers, teachers and volunteers continue to unclog the ground floor. The damage caused by the floods is visible on the wall, where there are traces of mud more than a meter and a half high; but we also see them outside the center with the fences and doors torn down. At the main entrance they had a built-in van which they have already managed to remove.
Unlike the pandemic, where high school students were able to resume classes via the Internet. This natural disaster presented a completely different context. “We can’t start teaching online because a lot of these students have lost everything. They have no house or online connection,” Cristina recalls.
At the door, two other teachers who are cleaning the center are chatting with a few students who have come to greet them. They say one of their classmates called one of the teachers after the flood to ask if the water had washed away the last exam they had taken two days before. The test hadn’t gone very well and he hoped that at least the Dana would bring him some good news. But it wasn’t like that. The exam was saved from disaster and is safe at his teacher’s house.
