Blog: What has happened to Whatcom Middle School students?

When Whatcom Middle School burned down the question on everyone’s mind was where were all the kids going to go to school? The answer to that question ended up being the sixth graders were carted off to an elementary school, the seventh graders off to a middle school and the eighth graders off the a high school. 

While it was great that these schools opened their doors for the students of Whatcom Middle School what no one really thought about what it would be like for students to attend three different schools in the span of three years. 

Whatcom Middle School parent Kerrie Zerba had an eighth grade son attending Whatcom Middle School at the time of the fire. Her younger son would have been a sixth grader at Whatcom Middle School starting this year. 

She said her biggest concern during this whole event was that no one really thought about the loss of the children being able to identity with being a Whatcom Wildcat. Yes we can go on and on about how kids can be resilient and they will make friends, but changing schools three times seems a bit much. 

Every time a child changes schools they will be in a strange place with different people, different hallways and none of their friends from the other school to show them the way. 

School is a huge part of these children’s lives. They spend roughly 30 hours attending school every week. Comparing to adults this is like a job. Imagine if every year a boss transfered you to a new job. 

It was not cost effective to rent out a building and have all the Whatcom Middle School children stay together, but it is really too bad that there wasn’t a way to have them move less. 

Is there something else that could be done to have the children be able to connect during the next two years while their school is being rebuilt? 

For updates on the school go to: bellinghamschools.org/whatcom-middle-school-update

For transportation information during the rebuilding: bellinghamschools.org/transportation

For the plan of what schools students will attend during the rebuilding: http://bellinghamschools.org/sites/default/files/WhatcomRelocationPlan.pdf