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The Haiti earthquake sent tremors down the backbone of St. Joachim and Anne School in Queens Village, a Roman Catholic grade school.
At a school with an 80-percent Haitian population, many were affected by the disaster. One student lost 30 of his cousins. Another lost his uncle.
With a blank expression, 13-year-old Rod Beauplan told how his uncle had been hit on the head with a rock while cleaning his porch.
“He was in a coma for two days,” said Beauplan, the 8th grader. “Two days later, my mom found out that he died.”
In a 1st grade class on Wednesday, Jan. 20, the children were all well aware of the destruction in Haiti. One student was grieving the death of his father, while another was grateful that his brothers had survived.
The teacher, Judie Breuer, reminded children that they had a network of support at school and at home.
“I’ve never been to Haiti, but when I look at the pictures on the television of Haiti, because I know all of you so well and your families so well, I kind of feel like I know Haiti,” said Breuer.
Many of those connected to the school, had a story and a loss to tell about.
Delicia Pierre, 35, a parent of two children at the school, said the earthquake affected her husband’s family in Port-au-Prince, Haiti’s capital city.
A magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck Haiti on Jan. 12, followed by a powerful aftershock on Jan. 20. The earthquake’s epicenter was about 10 miles southwest of Port-au-Prince, according to The New York Times.
Another parent, Jacques Pierre-Louis, 49, could barely speak of the tragedy that has fallen on his homeland.
“If 200,000 in Haiti are dead,” said Pierre-Louis. “You lost someone.”
At the beginning of the school day on Thursday, Jan 20., Principal Linda Freebes asked the children to make a sacrifice for earthquake victims by reading a page of the bible.
Later in the day, the school hosted a food pantry to help the needy in the area.
One of the recipients, Pierre Narcisse, 73, said that his brother-in-law, a priest, had died in the earthquake when his roof collapsed on him. He would come to Queens a few times a year to perform mass at the St. Joachim and Anne Church.
“My wife is inconsolable,” said Narcisse. “She’s down.”
At an anonymous group counseling session before lunchtime, six 1st graders sat to discuss their feelings about the earthquake.
“I was wondering if my family was okay,” said one.
“It felt like my heart was about to drop and crack,” said another.
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