J. E. Hobbs Students Return After School Fire

From the West Alabama Newsroom–

Camden elementary school students whose classrooms were destroyed by fire went back to school Wednesday morning for the first time since the fire.

“We are back. I told everyone, This is like a new start for us. And we take lemons and we make lemonade with it.”

Principal Vernita Laister says students have had to be moved around, and some classrooms have been rearranged, so that student instruction could resume — after the fire that destroyed one of the main buildings — on the Hobbs Elementary School campus early Friday morning.

Nine classrooms were destroyed — and nearly 200 — Pre-K — kindergarten –and 1st grade students — were displaced.

“One of my students he was like, “I wanna go back to first grade.” I’m like, “Baby you are still in first grade. We just in a different classroom,” said 1st grade teacher Lakesia Stover.

“It was different this morning,” said Pre-K teacher Valerie Dunning.

“I had a couple that were crying and were in my lap like, “we want our old room. I was like, “we can’t have it. But we’re going to make the best out of this one. So, once we got the day going and started them to getting what they had, what we had for them to do, they got into it.”

“We have our 6th grade student on Camden School of Arts and Technology campus. We have a setup over there where all three classes are housed in the same area. I’m calling it the 6th grade wing,” said Laister.

“We just have to use the space that we have. We don’t have any extra space but we have to make the best of what we do have.”

The last day of school is June 8th — and summer learning starts — June 13th.

A fence is being put up around the perimeter of the fire damaged building — to keep people out of the area — to ensure that no one accidentally gets hurt.