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Children in Warsaw schools seem to be coping with news of the war in Iraq with little anxiety, according to elementary and middle school principals.
"We're not getting a lot of questions," Madison Elementary Principal Jeff Neumann said today, though when students ask about the war, "we are anwering questions honestly as they are brought up."
Local schools are trying to minimize students' exposure to war news.
"School is a place where normalcy should prevail," Neumann said, a sentiment echoed by other principals.
"We've made the school kind of a refuge," said Chris Gensinger, principal of Eisenhower Elementary. "We are actually not doing anything special at this point."
"What we're trying to do is keep the focus on school," said JoElla Smyth, principal of Edgewood Middle School. "We have intentionally made school a safe haven."
Smyth said 56 of Edgewood's approximately 450 students have relatives who have been deployed or who are awaiting deployment. Some students have more than one relative in the service.
In those cases, she said, "we try to touch base and make sure if they need help they get it."
She also advises parents that if they watch war news, to watch it with their children so they can discuss it, to keep it in balance and not to watch the news too much.
"It's really important for kids to be kids," she said.
