WYNNE — As Wynne High School seniors near the finish line, Ellie Britt, a first-year teacher at the school, is working with the students on a video to help them remember their experiences.
Britt is the yearbook sponsor and broadcast teacher at Wynne High School. The group has been working on a “From Here to Now” video that includes their time at Wynne schools, which unfortunately included a devastating tornado.
“I had to go back and find older pictures of when the high school was still there… and alongside that what it looked like directly after the sad day of the tornado hitting,” she said. “It kind of transformed into what we’re doing now and how we’re thriving and doing every day what we can, and seeing just how resilient these kids are and how they persevered through absolutely anything.
“They do amazing at it. You wouldn’t know walking around that these kids had a traumatic experience like that,” Britt added. “Just getting to see that through a video and … personally, me getting to hear the stories they have of I remember doing this at this part of the school and I remember this happening here. Just hearing the stories and especially being a first year, just getting the history on that was just amazing to hear. It was amazing seeing the ending product of that.”
Lea Burton, a counselor at the high school, said the video has helped the students in their healing process.
“One thing that concerns me is the whole world is different,” she said. “The last five to 10 years have changed the entire world. We have to learn to adapt and find ways to help our students who have not had to deal with anything but trauma. For the last five years, they’ve missed so much as far as coping skills and learning how to interact with each other because all they know is trauma. The last five years we’ve been hit with back-to-back things that have really affected them.”
Burton said the district is also working with the community to learn how their instruction needs to change to adapt to the needs of today.
