Crime & Safety
Santa Monica College Evacuated By Mistake
An automated text message was sent to Santa Monica College students telling them to "Remain calm and don't run."
SANTA MONICA, CA – Santa Monica College (SMC) students received an automated text message Thursday morning prompting them to evacuate campus. "Remain calm and don't run," the message read. However, it was just a power outage and the message was sent in error.
"Nothing's going on at Santa Monica College, it's just a power outage," a Santa Monica Watch Commander told Patch.
The issue has been fixed and the campus is safe, police said.
Find out what's happening in Santa Monicafor free with the latest updates from Patch.
Later in the morning, SMC sent students two more text messages. One said the first message was sent in error, and the second explained what parts of campus the utility outage affected, according to screenshots posted by an SMC student on Twitter.
SMC said the alert message advising students to evacuate "was a false alarm ... caused by human error and we are truly sorry for the mistake."
Find out what's happening in Santa Monicafor free with the latest updates from Patch.
Am I supposed to stay in class orr.... all of a sudden Santa Monica wants to go ghetto on me. That’s it ima transfer. pic.twitter.com/BwYWbNibMo
— Mat (@Mrod__21) September 20, 2018
Never mind we good we good. pic.twitter.com/r2Ni1RGyYS
— Mat (@Mrod__21) September 20, 2018
City News Service contributed to this post; Main image via Patch
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