In Puerto Rico, Natural Disasters Take A Mental And Academic Toll On Children
Consider This from NPR
NPR
4.2 • 6.2K Ratings
🗓️ 21 August 2023
⏱️ 12 minutes
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Summary
These disasters have taken a heavy toll on student mental health. They've disrupted everyday life - including school. That disruption has seriously impacted educational outcomes for kids and teens on the island.
The Nation's Report Card shows that more than one-third of fourth graders overall in the U.S are considered proficient or better in math.
In Puerto Rico, that number rounds out to zero. Children on the island have worse outcomes when it comes to graduation rates, and reading scores continue to decline.
Reporter Kavitha Cardoza traveled to Puerto Rico to learn how students and teachers cope.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | When Desanile Galarza was in the fifth grade, her family's ground floor apartment flooded |
| 0:14.6 | the town of Salinas in southern Puerto Rico, where she and her family live had seen heavy |
| 0:20.0 | rainfall. |
| 0:21.0 | My mother was sad because we lost everything. |
| 0:26.9 | Our school had to close for a few days so that staff could clean a foot of muddy water |
| 0:32.2 | from the classrooms, and the damage done to her home meant Desanile ended up missing |
| 0:37.6 | school for two weeks, which she was not happy about. |
| 0:41.1 | One day I went to be a nurse. |
| 0:46.0 | School is very important to me. |
| 0:48.3 | Those floods were just the latest interruption to her education and her life because of natural |
| 0:54.4 | disasters. |
| 0:55.6 | For many Puerto Ricans and their children, the trauma compounds and lingers. |
| 1:01.6 | One resident calls this collective island PTSD. |
| 1:05.9 | I was thinking how long have we been going through different events. |
| 1:11.4 | So I made a list from Maria on. |
| 1:14.7 | Julia Moniz is a teacher in Puerto Rico, and she is referencing Hurricane Maria in 2017. |
| 1:21.8 | Since Hurricane Maria, Puerto Rico has been hit with all kinds of hardships from a series |
| 1:27.5 | of earthquakes starting in late 2019 to, of course, COVID in 2020. |
| 1:33.8 | In 2021, in-person school finally resumed. |
| 1:37.6 | But then Hurricane Fiona unleashed a furious attack on the island last year. |
| 1:43.6 | Schools shut again. |
| 1:45.8 | During that time, Moniz was worried for her students. |
... |
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