Ding Dong the School is Gone

Memminger Elementary, Charleston, S.C.

Going, going, almost gone. I heard that Memminger Elementary and Buist Academy were two of the schools on the peninsula that were being demolished after studies showed they wouldn't be safe in an earthquake. My kids went to both the schools so I thought I'd grab a few pictures before they were gone but I was almost too late.

We moved to Charleston when my children were ready for kindergarten and grade one and were immediately told there was no public school on the peninsula that they should go to. I'd lived where there were good and bad teachers but had never lived anywhere where I was told that a whole school was bad. There was only one other white family at Memminger at that time and to this day people call out recognizing me as the mother of the only white kid in their class.

Years later one after the other, they were each accepted at Buist Academy on Calhoun St. which was not only the closest neighborhood school but also an academic magnet school. How odd to see bulldozers tearing down the auditorium and cafeteria they went to every day. It looks like they might leave the main street front building in place. I remember trying to speak very clearly when I mentioned that my kid was "a Buist kid" because people tended to think I said they were "abused kids".



Buist Academy, Calhoun St., Charleston, S.C.