Schools keep children indoors

Marisa O’Neil

Many students had gym class indoors Monday and a Rea Elementary

School trip has been put on hold due to the smoke and ash kicked up

by the wildfires that have ravaged through Southern California.

Sixth-grade students at Rea Elementary in Costa Mesa were set to

leave at 8 a.m. for four nights and three days in the San Bernardino

Mountains with the Orange County Department of Education Outdoor

Science Camp. Though the Alpine Meadows campground, about 20 miles

from Big Bear, isn’t in immediate fire danger, all the department-run

camps are closed for the week.

“It was difficult telling them they can’t go,” Rea sixth-grade

teacher and trip coordinator Jenneffer Weiss said. “They’re doing a

good job of putting it into perspective. They know that other people

have lost their homes and lives. They realize that at least we

weren’t up there last week and we’re not in any danger.”

About 210 students were set to go on the trip, offered at Rea each

year to sixth-graders. During the trip, students take nature hikes

and learn about forestry, wildlife, geology and take part in

team-building exercises, Weiss said.

The Orange County Department of Education operates six camps in

the San Bernardino mountains, Outdoor Science Camp Principal Susan

Brown said. As of Monday afternoon, one of the camps near Running

Springs was under mandatory evacuation, but all have been closed for

the week.

“We never put the safety of students in peril,” Brown said. “Where

[Rea students] were going is not even under voluntary evacuation, but

there just wasn’t any way to ensure safety and get the kids up

there.”

The Alpine Meadows campground is in Angeles Oaks near Barton

Flats, Brown said. Access to the area is limited due to the fires and

emergency equipment on the roads.

Rea and the other schools that missed out on the camps this week

can reschedule their trips for later this year.

“We do save some dates during the year,” Brown said. “Usually we

call them ‘snow days’ but this year I guess they’ll be ‘fire days’.”

Despite being so close to the fires, Brown said that the air at

the Outdoor Science Camp offices at the base of the mountain near

Redlands is cleaner than it is at her home in Orange County because

the wind appears to be pushing the smoke this way.

That ash and smoke that continues to fill the air in Orange County

prompted the Newport-Mesa Unified School District to advise schools

to have students refrain from strenuous exercise outdoors,

spokesperson Jane Garland said. They will reassess the conditions on

a day-to-day basis.

At Rea, Principal Ken Killian said that students were staying

inside at recess and lunch Monday and the gym classes were taking

place in the school’s multi-purpose room. Corona del Mar High School

also kept students out of the sooty air as much as possible.

“We really decided to err on the side of caution,” Principal

Sharon Fry said. “The football team is meeting in the gym. No one is

doing any heavy running. For P.E. they’re either inside or doing

non-strenuous activities. We felt we just needed to be cautious.”

For the Rea students who saw their trip postponed, Weiss said she

hopes to turn the disappointment into a learning experience when they

do finally go.

“It will definitely be a teaching opportunity,” Weiss said. “They

can learn the role of fire in the cycle of nature, and that though

it’s destructive in human terms [it], has a reconstructive role in

nature.”