Nevada Focus: Lee Vining community pulls together after fire

Friday, Oct. 2, 1998 | 10:05 a.m.

You could miss Lee Vining if you gazed too long at the mesmerizing sight of magnificent Mono Lake just east of town, or looked too longingly at the spectacular wall of still snow-capped mountains west of the tiny community.

But if you were looking for a big heart, for a resounding resilience of the human spirit, you couldn't possibly miss Lee Vining - population 315 - because here in the shadow of the Eastern Sierra, a community has been tested and so far it looks like the grades will be high.

On Sept. 19, the citizens of Lee Vining awoke early to smoky skies and the terrible news that the high school was burning.

After the ashes settled, residents learned two Lee Vining students were responsible - a 14-year-old freshman and a 15-year-old sophomore who had recently left classes to be home-schooled.

While the arsonists were in their homes, where they were both later arrested and confessed, other LVHS students rallied in the early dawn to try and save the burning school.

Robert Garnica, 15, a sophomore, saw the smoke early from his home in a trailer park across the highway and called his friend, Alejandro Flores, 16, a junior.

The boys raced to the blazing school and immediately went to help other passersby who were removing computers, books, desks and anything that could be picked up and taken out.

Both boys said they knew the suspects, and the word was that alcohol was a factor in the boys' behavior.

"They were drunk, they were Yogi Bearin' and that's how they got the alcohol," Flores said.

Yogi Bearin'?

"It's where they go steal the coolers of people camping, and lots of time there is alcohol in there," Garnica said.

Mono County Sheriff Dan Paranick confirmed that at least one car had been vandalized and that ice chests containing alcohol had been missing from a nearby campground.

Flores and Garnica said their fellow students were anything but happy about the unscheduled school "vacation."

"We're mad, sad, disappointed and confused, really," Flores said. "We're all disappointed that they destroyed the school and caused this situation. We all just want to get back to school."

"We have good teachers here, and we all just want to get back to normal," Garnica said. "We heard the state architect came and looked at the school and it might not be fixed. It will be sad if they have to bulldoze the school."

Flores said students had mixed reactions to the fact that siblings of the alleged arsonists still remained at school.

"Some of us went up to one of the brothers who was thinking it was his fault, and we said, 'Hey, it's not your fault, you didn't burn the school down,"' he said.

Lee Vining, the "Gateway to Yosemite," is a tiny tourist town, with two churches, one grocery market, eight gift shops, 11 motels, 10 restaurants, four gas stations, one pumice company and two schools: Lee Vining High School which housed approximately two dozen high school students and 20 junior high students and Lee Vining Elementary School.

The junior high students and their two teachers displaced by the fire will remain at a new Healthy Start building near the elementary school. High school students have moved to the Lee Vining Community Presbyterian Church.

When portables are brought in mid-October, all secondary students will move to the temporary classrooms until a new school is built.

Meredith Ford, who has taught high school at LVHS for 10 years, said that beyond the disbelief, there have been lots of hugs and tears among her two dozen students.

"At this stage, we are coming away with a greater sense of pride in our kids," she said. "Although this is very sad, it has really brought the kids together."

Ford, who teaches subjects including English, social studies and Spanish, said the reaction of the students to the arsonists is complicated by the fact that the town is small and everyone knows each other.

"I think mostly they are upset and wondering, 'Why did they ruin it for the rest of us?"' she said.

Ford said generous help from the community as well as outlying areas has already been offered and brought in.

"First of all, the Presbyterian church is letting us bring 30 people in here every day until the end of October," she said. "Then, we had community members bring food in for the kids and the Walker Lake Resort has offered money to help."

A tourist who witnessed the fire wrote a check to the school, and tourists worked with community residents in helping to remove items from the school during the fire and the cleanup that followed.

Principal Nancy Lampson said the high school building was essentially Lee Vining's community center, the site for the town's open gym and the stage for many elementary school Christmas pageants and student plays over the last 37 years.

"This is where we gathered when anything big happened," she said. "This was the heart of our community."

Lampson said the school district's insurance will cover the loss, which will most likely include demolishing the old building and building anew.

The school was built in 1960 and housed the first students beginning in 1961.