Troops’ loved ones get chance to unload

BOISE – Millie Phimmasone, 13, feels sad when she flips through her eighth-grade world history book and sees pictures of people fighting in wars.

She thinks and worries – as she does often, she said – about a cousin who is serving in Iraq.

“It reminds me of the battles,” she said.

Millie, a student at Fairmont Junior High School, isn’t alone. In math class, Breanna Johnson’s mind sometimes wanders to her brother who is serving in Iraq.

“Math was his favorite subject,” she said.

Sometimes, when he was home visiting, he’d help her with her math problems.

Millie and Breanna are among 18 eighth-graders at Fairmont Junior High who meet once a week with counselor Sue Mooney to talk – and sometimes shed tears – about loved ones who are fighting overseas.

Facing separation from a relative gone off to war adds one more burden to many eighth-graders, who are also facing one of the toughest academic years of their young school lives, Mooney said.

In eighth grade, courses like earth science and some math and foreign language grades count toward high school graduation. It’s important that kids concentrate, she said.

“We want them to deal with the military issue so they can focus,” Mooney said.

You might not notice it on the faces of kids who have family members fighting in Iraq, but many of them are pretty worried about what is happening to a cousin, uncle, brother or a dad.

“For a few of the kids who have parents over in Iraq, this is huge,” said John Ruprecht, an eighth-grade counselor at South Junior High School who has a group of kids meeting every two weeks to talk about their feelings about relatives fighting in the war.

And for many of those students, the fears and concerns pop up in ways many of us would never think about, he said. They could surface when they watch the news, read a history text or are “doing a writing assignment on things that stress you out.”

Mooney started her group about two months ago; students take time out of class once a week to talk about their fears.

“You feel sad, but happy too,” Breanna said. “He is doing something he wanted to do – to fight for freedom.”

Mooney brought in people from the National Guard to talk to the students, who all have National Guard T-shirts. And they have done projects, such as make Christmas cards – one to go to a loved one overseas and one they can hang on their own Christmas tree.

Breanna made a card that read: “Merry Christmas! We will all be thinking and praying for you at Christmas. And I’m sure we will still be sending care packages and there will be presents for you when you’re home.”

Mooney began the eighth-grade group, and the school will decide next semester whether to expand to other grades, Principal Staci Curry said.

Meanwhile, Mooney’s weekly meetings seem to be working. Pam Keslar’s daughter Kelsey, who has a cousin serving overseas in the Navy, talks about her feelings in the class.

“I would think it mostly (helps her) realize she is not alone,” Keslar said. “I think the school is great for offering a program like this.”

Mooney is looking forward to the day when one of her students’ loved ones returns from the war and can talk with the class about what it is like to be over there.

“That’s a piece of reality,” she said.