School Disrict Warns Cleanup Sites Are Off-Limits

The Pasadena Unified School District is telling residents not to enter its Eaton Fire cleanup sites — and warning that walking onto them is trespassing.

The soil there, the district said in a June 16, 2026 statement, is contaminated at levels harmful “to the health and safety of our school communities.” It asked the public to “allow our environmental and safety teams the space to do their work.”

The warning came a day after one such unauthorized entrance came to light at Pasadena City Council.

Paloma Muñiz Ochoa, 17, told the council she had spent the day — about eight and a half hours, her mother said — sitting in one of the oaks marked for removal. “Being in that oak tree, I connected with it,” she said, adding that it “means a lot to the environment and to the animals and plants living in it.”

The district said its commitment to “safe, healthy campuses” has not changed and that it is balancing “an intricate timeline” to reopen for the school year. Updates: pusd.us/restoringourschools.