School evacuates after gas odor is detected

Taylor D’AndreaNews EditorDuring fourth period on Oct. 29, students and faculty members reportedly detected a strong odor of gas in multiple buildings on campus, including the History and Language buildings, which lead to a school-wide evacuation.According to Terry Kamibayashi, SMMUSD Manager of Maintenance and Construction, it has been confirmed that the odor was not natural gas; however, the source of the odor is still unclear.The Southern California Gas Company still has no information on the nature of the smell, or any record of a leak occurring that day near the Samo area. However,  Gas Company public relations manager Raul Gordillo said, “[Gas leaks] happen everyday when a contractor hits one of our lines.” Gordillo added, “It could have been from a local Oil Refinery.”According to Kamibayashi, “The only information at the time was that it was an unknown odor from an unknown source that was being blown in from the ocean.”Kamibayashi confirmed that the odor was also reportedly smelled by students and staff at Washington West, John Muir, SMASH, Olympic, Will Rogers, John Adams and Grant. The Gas Company reported that the odor was detected as far inland as West Los Angeles and Culver City.At Samo, the History building was one of the first to smell gas.“Our classroom noticed the smell within the first 30 minutes of [fourth] period,” Maria Stevens, O-House English teacher, said. “We went and checked next door to see if they noticed the smell, then we called down to O-House to see if we should evacuate.”According to Tomita Glover, O-House assistant, other classrooms began to notice the odor soon after Stevens’ class reported smelling the gas.“I called down to the headquarters for them to have somebody call and check. After I called, calls started coming in from the Language and Business buildings,” Glover said. “We were waiting, and teachers kept calling to see if they should evacuate or not. I put on the radio and called for an administrator but when nobody responded after a minute or so, I called Dr. Pedroza.”According to Samo Principal Dr. Hugo Pedroza, the most reasonable plan at that time was to evacuate.“We were working on yearbook and I was running call slips when I ran into Dr. Pedroza in the History Building,” sophmore Cami Speyer said. “He said that the strong smell was probably a gas leak, and that we were evacuating. I went back to my class and then we all evacuated out of the building.”Due to the unexpected timing of the incident, students were notified of the evacuation by Dr. Pedroza over the announcements in the middle of lunch. Although many were unable to hear the specifics of Dr. Pedroza’s instructions, not many students were alarmed according to sophmore Cameron Leventen.“I was in my French class in the History Building when I smelled the gas. It smelled awful, but I’m not concerned because the whole atmosphere here is pretty calm,” Leventen said. “Everyone is chill. If people freaked out, I probably would too.”Some students even benefitted from the confusion of the evacuation by selling food items to students who were unable to get lunch because of the evacuation.“We’re taking advantage of a profitable situation, since we are an enterprise class,” Joey Bravo, a senior in the Virtual Business class, said. “We’re not selling these at markup though, on the weekends we sell the croissants for $2, and here we’re selling them for $1.”The origin of the gas is still being investigated by the Gas Company. In the event of a similar situation in the future, gas odors can be reported to the Gas Company at 1-800-427-2200.tdandrea@thesamohi.com