Jan. 11, 2006

Last week&8217;s column &8212; scratch that. If being without a column topic in the fall meant I was caught without my homework, then I just plain flunked the test this week.

The New Orleans evacuee in Mrs. Tuccio&8217;s class, Tempestt, is still here. When I talked to Tempestt just before school let out for the Christmas break, the plan was to pack up and move back home, to a FEMA trailer in Grandma&8217;s yard, and that&8217;s what I wrote in the column.

Tempestt spent her time during the class&8217;s Christmas party taking pictures of friends and accepting that fact that she&8217;d soon say goodbye.

But family plans came to a screeching halt in the final hour of school. Saying goodbye was not something Tempestt wanted to do.

Tears came. Then sobs. Then near hyperventilation, school counselor Betty Porter and Mrs. Tuccio said.

The only words teachers and quite concerned classmates could get from Tempestt were &8220;I don&8217;t want to leave. I don&8217;t want to go back.&8221;

Tempestt is no softie. She came to McLaurin after escaping a tragedy most adults have never seen, and she fit right in. She made a place for herself, made friends and did her fair share of talking in class &8212; just like most other kids.

But leaving must be much harder than coming.

Once the crying got serious, Mrs. Tuccio called for Porter who took Tempestt for a walk around the school. Her mother arrived soon after, because it was near dismissal time.

Since then, Tempestt&8217;s family made the decision to leave the fourth-grader in Natchez with her aunt (they&8217;ve all been living there since the storm). Her mom went back to New Orleans to try and find an apartment, a job and settle a little.

She&8217;s coming back for Tempestt soon &8212; in the next few weeks.

So far, Tempestt is the only McLaurin student to get that upset about returning to New Orleans, Porter said. But most have left without goodbyes, often not even telling the school they were going. Many more left over the Christmas holidays, minus the tearful classroom goodbyes.

&8220;(Tempestt) didn&8217;t want to leave the school. She liked it here and she liked our school,&8221; Porter said. &8220;She came back and she&8217;s just smiling.&8221;

But the smiles may not last.

I have no idea what&8217;s running through Tempestt&8217;s head. Her teachers and counselors don&8217;t have much of an idea, and her parents may not completely understand.

Maybe she just doesn&8217;t want to leave her new friends. Maybe it&8217;s simple childhood moving away emotions.

But maybe it&8217;s more.

Her town was destroyed. Her school, her house, her Wal-Mart, her friend&8217;s houses were all damaged. And they were damaged by something her mom can&8217;t control. Something her teachers can&8217;t protect her from.

If I were in her shoes, I&8217;d be scared.

Children are resilient. I&8217;ve heard that a hundred times over locally and nationally since Katrina. And it&8217;s true. But not in all cases, all the time, or maybe, just not at the moment.

I haven&8217;t been too worried about the evacuee children in our school. I&8217;ve done multiple stories on how well they&8217;ve adjusted. I watched Tempestt in class for months. I thought they were fine. But that&8217;s probably because I wanted to think they were fine.

Maybe we&8217;ve rushed the healing. Maybe we&8217;re wrong.

Porter pointed to several reasons evacuee children like Tempestt might be worried about leaving Natchez.

&8220;It could be that (they&8217;ve) gone back to New Orleans and seen the devastation, and that&8217;s not home. There are no familiar things. In a different school, they&8217;ll have to start over making friends. Maybe (they) just really like it here,&8221; she said.

Maybe they are just plain scared.

What if it happens again?

Natchez has embraced these children for nearly six months now. We&8217;ve adopted some, and fostered others. The tough part didn&8217;t end in September, and we can&8217;t stop loving them yet.

Julie Finley is the education reporter for The Natchez Democrat. She writes a weekly column based on experiences with Marty Tuccio&8217;s homeroom class at McLaurin Elementary. She can be reached at 601-445-3551 or

julie.finley@natchezdemocrat.com

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