REMER, Minn. -- Students returning to classes after a New Year's Day fire killed eight children and two parents were told by counselors Tuesday it was alright to cry, but also to laugh about more pleasant holiday memories.
'We think it went very well,' said Mike Doro, principal of Remer Elementary School. 'We met with the teachers at about 7:30 this morning and worked with them both on their personal grief and to get them ready to work with the students. When the students came in they dealt very directly with what happened. They shared their feelings and fears -- that sort of thing.'
Doro said teachers were given a statement to read to their students.
'It set forth very clearly what happened and to who it had happened,' Doro said. 'The students were encouraged to share their feelings or ask questions.
'What we attempted at that point was to try to clarify what happened, especially for the younger children, that you don't have to go around crying ... that it's OK to laugh. We wanted to take the confusion over how to act out of their minds.
'They are coming off Christmas vacation. A lot of children brought in trucks and dolls they wanted to show. We had to give them permission, as it were; to say that's OK. Christmas vacation is important, too. We need to talk about this and go on.'
Doro said some students did take advantage of talking to the counselors privately about deaths of the eight children, ages 8-14, and the two adults. But he said there weren't that many questions from the students.
'Feelings shared, yes,' he said. 'But the kids basically shared a lot of information on things they had heard.
'If there was misinformation, we tried to correct it.'
Doro said that while the mood started out subdued, the schools were 'pretty much back to normal' by afternoon. He said he didn't listen in on student conversations among themselves but it appeared lunchtime 'was about normal. The kids were out on the playground.'
The Remer school system has about 600 students in two elementary schools and a six-year high school.
School administrators brought in outside counselors, psychologists and clergy to supplement the district's own counselors to help indealing with the town's worst tragedy in memory to those who asked for it. Initially the concentration was on those classrooms where the victims had been taught.
'We aimed them primarily in the beginning at those classes but we made them available to everyone in small groups or individually as needed throughout the morning,' Doro said.
'I think they (the students) are handling it pretty well. Nobody, I think, has gone through the entire grief process to acceptance yet, but things are being dealt with very openly and clearly.'
Classes started an hour late but continued through the day as normal.
The 10 victims -- members of three families -- died in a two-story house about two miles from town. The two adults were babysitting their two children and six children whose parents were celebrating the New Year.
It was the worst fire in Minnesota since 16 died in a hotel fire in Breckenridge in 1977.
The exact cause of the fire had not been determined, and officials said it may never be known. But fire officials said a space heater may have been responsible.
Nancy and John Watson returned from celebrating her birthday early Sunday to find firefighters battling the blaze. They had to be restrained from going in the home to rescue their four children -- Jenny, 14, Samantha, 11, Edward, 9, and William, 8, who all died.
Nancy's sister from Bemidji and her family were spending the weekend at the home. Becky Smischney, 31, the sister, and her husband, Jean Smischney, 33, died along with their children -- Jay, 10, and Kimberly, 9.
Also killed were Michelle Bastle, 10, and Robin Bastle, 12, daughters of Nancy and Tony Bastle, who are neighbors of the Watsons who were spending the night at the home.
