Smoke from construction causes alarm
By: Gaurika Gupta
On Tuesday, Apr. 1, students and teachers that remained in school after the last
bell of the day, were forced to evacuate when they noticed smoke in the second-floor
hallways and classrooms.
Attributed to the ongoing roof repair, upon sensing the smoke and noticing a
haze in their classrooms, teachers took quick action as they ushered the students
outside.
“I think it was approximately 3:30 to 3:40 and I didn’t think much of it initially but
after a minute or so I realized it wasn’t going away,” AP Environmental Science and AP
Chemistry teacher Rohan Patel said. “That’s when I decided to move out of the
classroom and go to the cafeteria with my students.”
Once the fire alarms went off, fire trucks were spotted across campus, and the fire
was put out without damage. Students were able to return to campus the next day.
“Overall, it was all taken care of,” assistant principal Meraj Khan said. “Fire
department was immediately here. They checked everything, and then they released the
building.”
Since this year marked the campus’ 30th anniversary, the ongoing roof work that
students and teachers have been hearing of for the past week is part of a bond project
that requires a complete replacement of the campus roof.
“Because we are getting our roof repaired, they’re using hot tar and things like
that,” principal Rachel Cortez said. “And basically what happened is that some of the
smoke came in through our air conditioning unit, and that’s why it looked worse
