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A school in Santa Rosa that serves around 125 students with autism has been destroyed by the Tubbs Fire.
The entryway to the Anova School — which is inside the Luther Burbank Center for the Arts — is burnt almost beyond recognition in photos.
Some staff members have lost homes, said Andrew Bailey, founder and CEO Anova, but as of Tuesday morning there hadn’t been any reports of injuries from staff or families with students attending the school.
“Our number one priority is making sure that our community of kids and family members and employees are safe,” he said.
Kids’ Emotional Needs
The Anova community is still in the assessment phase, but there’s something else on Bailey’s mind: The emotional needs of his students. Autism is a developmental disorder that impacts a person’s ability to communicate and interact. Big changes — like a disaster — can be hard for people with autism to deal with.
“We have students who experience anxiety and depression occasionally, sometimes fairly regularly, even without a fire event such as this,” said Bailey. “So those types of students will have a real problem with losing their school.”
Copyright 2017 KQED