SM Fire and Police to occupy Science and Tech buildings over break

During spring break, the Santa Monica Fire Department (SMFD) and possibly the Santa Monica Police Department (SMPD) will take hold of the Science and Technology buildings for critical public safety training, taking advantage of this step in Samo’s plans for the new Discovery building.   Plans for the Discovery building have been in the works for years, but they finally became a reality on Jan. 18, when students noticed interim classrooms being installed on one of the tennis courts. The classrooms will serve as storage for all items and belongings of all Science and Technology building teachers as they make the switch. Classes will begin in the interim classrooms on April 9, the first day back from spring break.  During spring break, the two buildings will be lent to SMFD and SMPD in order for the departments to get a unique opportunity to perform realistic in-school training.  “The staff at Samo have graciously offered these two buildings to the [SMFD] to use for training...these buildings offer a rare opportunity of realistic training exercises such as live fire training, breaking down/forcing doors, search and rescue operations in a smoky and unfamiliar building, moving hoses/flowing water and vertical ventilation (cutting holes in the roof to let all of the fire gases and smoke out while we are fighting the fire with water),” SMFD Engine 2A Captain Dan Watje said.  The collaboration between the SMFD, the SMPD and Samo emerged out of the emergency responders’ need for a closer and more in-depth knowledge of the Samo campus and for realistic practice with emergency situations. However, this time around, the SMPD is unsure whether or not they will be training during the break.  “The SMPD hopes to have time to perform active shooter training, practice forcing down doors, and train with the SMFD. However, because there will be inter department training going on during the same time, it is unknown if we will be able to get in there,” said Officer Sparks of the SMPD.  When the SMFD came to the Samo campus for an emergency a few years ago and used a map of Samo from the 1970s, it became clear that in order to ensure both the students’ and the emergency responders’ safety, the departments needed to have an updated sense of the campus. The departments decided that the best way to achieve this was to perform training on campus. Even though the Science and Technology buildings will be the only locations of the training, the departments will get a chance to learn the layout and become familiar with important elements of the entire campus. Even though Samo’s architecture is different than other schools, its general structure will help the departments to be better trained for school emergencies in general.