On January 8, Animo Jefferson Middle School called parents to have students picked up from school due to the bad air quality from the wildfires in L.A. This was done for students and staff safety. Green Dot central office staff were monitoring the air quality just in case it reached the danger zone. When it did, Animo Jefferson staff were forced to evacuate the students from school for safety and health issues.
Background
CNN News reported on January 7 about the air quality and wildfires spreading in Southern California. CNN stated, “Fire experts and arson investigators interviewed by CNN said it could take weeks, months, or even longer before they know precisely how the fires ignited.” Fires started spreading and damaging more than 16,000 homes and other structures.
The fire that made the students evacuate was the Eaton fire. It was the closest fire near the school. The fire destroyed 14,021 acres and took place northeast of Los Angeles near Pasadena.
Interviews
AJMS students listened to security guard Miles, School Counselor Laura Gutierrez, Area Superintendent Xochitl Avellan, and Assistant Principal Wendy Perez. They all talked about their experiences getting students home and the reason for the school closure.
Miles: What I feel about the fires is that it’s um people are losing their homes uh, the quality is bad and I just wish we had a better system for our fires.
Xochitl Avellan: Yea, it’s really unfortunate to have–you know such an event happening in Los Angeles um, given the fact that at one point after six fires going on it was just um, it’s devastating for the individuals who lost their homes and all of their belongings. It’s like a state of an emergency across Los Angeles, across California also we didn’t have school and to us—that is not okay. We need our students to go ahead and feel safe to be able to come back.
Ms. Perez talked about the plan to take students to safety.
Ms. Perez: Our first reaction was to make a plan so I think that some of you guys had seen how Security Alex or Miles came through to do some headcount so that we would know how many people we had in the school building. Mr. Flota started to talk to all the different adults—we talked to security, to the office, who’s going to tell parents, how are we going to tell them. We had to think about where all your parents can wait for you, so you guys know—you got picked up from the gym and not from the main office so we had space for parents inside. So those are some things we had to think of so that we can make a plan.
