A cacophony of community members cheering, cars honking, drums beating, and dogs barking, with Kool & The Gang’s “Celebration” playing in the background, welcomed Palisades Charter High School students back to their home campus Tuesday morning. The students’ return comes just over a year after the Palisades fire damaged or destroyed roughly 30% of the historic campus, which has been featured in films like “Carrie” and “Freaky Friday.” “They’re so resilient; they’re so strong,” said Malou Garcia, whose son, an 11th grader, longed to be back in the campus theater as a student in the school’s performing arts program. “I’m just so proud of them that they were able to endure what they endured.” Among those cheering the returning students were dozens of parents and community members — many wearing Pali sweatshirts, shaking pompoms and holding homemade signs with messages like “Welcome back Dolphins!” and “Resilience looks good on you.” jQuery(window).on(‘load’, function(){ var slider; if ( jQuery(‘.image-gallery-slider’).length > 0 ) { slider = tns({ controlsContainer: ‘#block-block_a9f27383c049191972ea1ca7e30be1ec .slide-nav’, container: ‘#block-block_a9f27383c049191972ea1ca7e30be1ec .image-gallery-slider’, navPosition: ‘top’, autoHeight: false, nav: true, items: 1, }); } }); Credit: Mallika Seshadri Credit: Mallika Seshadri Credit: Mallika Seshadri In April, the students were relocated to an overhauled Sears building in Santa Monica, nearly 6 miles away. For freshmen, who began the school year in Santa Monica, Tuesday marked the first day at their school. Ninth grader Noah Beroukhim said he and the other students toured the campus on Monday. “I forgot how it feels to be at a real campus.…
