Loss-staggered school reopens (JAPAN)

[AsahinaKimi]

Starting from scratch: A mother who lost her children stands in front of Okawa Elementary School in Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture, on April 5. The March 11 tsunami killed 74 of the 108 students and all but one of the dozen teachers.

Loss-staggered school reopens
Surviving kids, teacher look to resume class
AP

ISHINOMAKI, Miyagi Pref. — Classes start this week at Okawa Elementary School. But 74 of the 108 students will never come back. They died in last month's tsunami. All but one of the dozen teachers also perished.

The school's main building is ripped open. Trees jam into second-floor classrooms and the gym and playground have been reduced to muddied concrete foundations.

All along the battered northeastern coast, schools have been heavily damaged or converted to shelters, and families are without jobs, permanent homes or cars. But the country is determined to move ahead with one of its rites of spring: the start of the school year in April, even as some parents and children grieve.


"I'm just not ready to think about school yet. They haven't even found my daughter," said Naomi Hiratsuka, who lost her child, Koharu, a sixth-grader at Okawa Elementary, and has a younger one entering first grade.

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20110419f1.html

[Forkboy]

1. Can't even wrap my head around that kind of pain.

It's beyond sad.

[uppityperson]

2. +100000

[murielm99]

3. I am thinking about this in terms of my small

community. The elementary school here, K-5, has about 125 students. Losing most of them - OMG.

This is a terrible loss.