On Wednesday, January 8, Principal Edgar Flota received a call from his supervisors warning him about the LA wildfires and to take caution for students’ safety because of how bad the air quality. The poor air quality led to the school’s closure.
The strong winds were blowing smoke from the Eaton fire into the direction of the school. The air quality quickly turned dangerous for students to breathe in and soon the school took action to get the students to safety. Staff made the decision to close the school around 10:30am.
“We got a call from LAUSD to close down the schools closest to the LA fires because of the air quality,” said Xochitl Avellan, a Green Dot area superintendent. “We were making sure people and students wear masks to try to not breathe in the smoke and ash in the air.”
School security conducted a student head count, while office staff made calls for their parents or guardians to come pick them up.
“Some of you guys had probably seen Alex or Miles come through, doing some head counts so that we know how many people we had in the school building,” said Assistant Principal Wendy Perez.
While school staff were busy keeping everyone in the building, the people at the front office were having trouble getting in contact with some parents.
“Challenges we did face were connecting with parents because we don’t have accurate information that is in our school system” for more parents, said the school Counselor Laura Gutierrez.
Meanwhile some teachers were having trouble managing the students during the chaotic evacuation.
“We were just trying to do our job and making sure the kids were doing their work,” said Student Support Specialist, Ms. Jocelyn. “We didn’t tell the kids to evacuate until they were called to be picked up because we didn’t want to cause any panic.”
