Love of the Land: School Bells and Rocket Sirens

School Bells and Rocket Sirens

Anav Silverman
IsraelNationalNews.com
04 September 09

Although the third Hamas-Israel ceasefire is still in effect, Sderot schoolchildren began the 2009 school year both excited and yet apprehensive.

Two days before the doors to Sderot's nine schools opened, two rockets fired from Gaza triggered the city's rocket warning system known as the Color Red siren, and sent residents racing for a shelter on Sunday evening, August 30.

"I was scared but not surprised," says Rotem, a 16-year-old Sderot student, beginning eleventh grade at a local Sderot high school. "We know that the rocket attacks will begin again and I don't think that anyone here really believes that the quiet will last. We've lived here [in Sderot] long enough to know that," she says. Although the third Hamas-Israel ceasefire is still in effect, Sderot schoolchildren began the 2009 school year both excited and yet apprehensive.

Two days before the doors to Sderot's nine schools opened, two rockets fired from Gaza triggered the city's rocket warning system known as the Color Red siren, and sent residents racing for a shelter on Sunday evening, August 30.

"I was scared but not surprised," says Rotem, a 16-year-old Sderot student, beginning eleventh grade at a local Sderot high school. "We know that the rocket attacks will begin again and I don't think that anyone here really believes that the quiet will last. We've lived here [in Sderot] long enough to know that," she says.

Dina Huri, principal of a Sderot elementary school, made sure that the opening school year would offer everything for her first to sixth grade students and that also included upgrading the school shelters against future rocket attacks.

"During the summer, I had the 3 school bomb shelters transformed into "kid-friendly" shelters," she says. Huri had the shelter painted in bright colors and installed rugs so that the children would feel more comfortable. Huri doesn't remember the exact date of when the shelters were first installed-- "they have been around for a while"--but she says that the original concrete grey slabs made children feel like they were imprisoned. "Last year, every time the siren blared, the students had to run into these concrete structures, wondering when they could leave. Now these shelters are places that the students want to play in."

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Love of the Land: School Bells and Rocket Sirens