Meet the Class of 2025: Simon Garcia, CTE EMT Pathway Student, Vista del Lago High School

Simon Garcia did not wake up on April 27, 2025, expecting to witness something he would remember for the rest of his life. He was just starting off another day and showing up for his internship.

A senior at Vista del Lago High School in Moreno Valley Unified School District, Simon was part of the school’s Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) program, run through the Riverside County Office of Education’s (RCOE) Career Technical Education (CTE) pathway. That Sunday, he was assigned to Cal Fire Station 101 in Perris. It had been a steady shift so far, with a few notable calls, but nothing out of the ordinary.

Anaphylaxis calls in the morning.
A few false alarms.
Then, dispatch came through: a possible labor situation.

It was the third call for the same woman that day. As in the past, bystanders had phoned it in. The patient never requested help herself, and each time she declined assistance.

But this time it was different.

She was on the ground in a grocery store parking lot in Perris, yelling in pain. Simon noticed a small puddle on the ground near her.

“I thought it was just random street gunk,” he said. “But then I realized it was actually amniotic fluid. When we all realized what it was, we noticed that the captain was standing in it without noticing.”

It was a moment that captured more than just the chaos of the scene. For Simon, it showed how even the smallest detail could shift the urgency of a call.

“Once we realized her water had in fact broken, we knew it was time to treat her immediately,” he said.

Simon helped get her onto a gurney. They loaded her into the back of the ambulance and began heading toward Riverside University Health System (RUHS) Medical Center.

Five minutes into the ride, the baby came.

“It felt like five seconds,” Simon said. “But the paramedics told me it was five minutes. I guess that’s just how it feels at the moment.”

Simon stood near the mother’s head when it happened. He stayed nearby, focused on observing every movement, every decision, trying to take in as much as he could in case he needed to jump in. Suddenly, she cried out that she could feel the baby’s head, and within seconds, there he was, blue, silent, and very real.

“The paramedics jumped into action,” Simon said. “They suctioned him, gave him oxygen, and ventilated him. Then he started to cry.”

And when the moment came, they handed Simon the scissors.

“I cut the cord,” he said, still slightly stunned, weeks after the fact. “It felt like wet rubber.”

He was not just watching a birth. He was part of it.

“Miss. Robles, it’s a boy!”

Back in the group text that EMT and Public Safety Personnel/First Aid CPR Programs Director and Principal Instructor Ms. Magdalena Robles keeps with her students, her phone buzzed with a message: “Miss Robles, it’s a boy!! Delivered at 16:59 hours in the back of the ambulance!! They let me cut the cord, Miss Robles!!”

Robles has been teaching future EMT professionals for decades. She spent years in the field herself, first as an EMT, then a paramedic, and later as a seasoned instructor at local colleges and fire agencies. She has taught thousands of students, most of them high school students just beginning to understand the weight of what this job requires. And in more than thirty years, she had never had a student assist with a live birth.

“This is the first time,” she said. “I’ve had students do CPR, respond to major trauma, and go on difficult calls. But this? This was a first.”

The class had just spent two weeks practicing emergency childbirth procedures. Students took turns donning gowns, simulating labor scenarios on training mannequins, and learning how to support both mother and child. It is part of the required EMT skills they have to pass before completing the program and sitting for the National Registry of Emergency Medical Technicians exam.

“I remember watching him gown up that Friday,” Robles said. “He had his goggles on, and he was doing the training. And then, that weekend, he ends up delivering. It was incredible timing.”

The moment was rare. But what came before it was years in the making.

The Program

The EMT class at Vista del Lago High School is part of a CTE pathway offered through RCOE, giving students the chance to train in real emergency environments. Students in the course complete more than 300 hours of instruction, including clinical hours in the field. They ride along with emergency medical services like Cal Fire, AMR, RUHS, and others, and assist under the supervision of licensed paramedics.

“They’re not just sitting in the classroom,” Robles said. “They’re getting on ambulances. They are going into emergency rooms. They’re helping real patients.”

Her classroom follows a tight structure: Mondays through Wednesdays are devoted to hands-on skills. Students rotate through scenarios that mimic what they saw in the field, from trauma to airway management to emergency childbirth. 

It is not uncommon for students to witness trauma, support CPR efforts, or assist with patient care. But to be in the right place at the right time and prepared enough to help during a live birth? That kind of opportunity is almost unheard of for a high school student.

“I never got to deliver,” Robles said. “We’d arrive after the baby was born, do resuscitation, and provide care for the mom. But never the actual delivery.”

Simon’s experience underscores what makes the program more than just a class.

“It taught me to always be ready,” Simon said. “It wasn’t a super busy day, so I wasn’t expecting it. But I saw what training does. You fall back on it when the moment comes.”

He credited his classmates, too. Several of them had also responded to intense situations during their internships. Some performed CPR. Others worked with cardiac arrest. The program had built its own culture of readiness and support.

“It feels like a community,” he said. “We’re in class for two hours every day. We all share stories and learn from each other.”

Ms. Robles

Ask anyone in the program, and they would say the same thing: it is Ms. Robles who made the difference.

“She’s like a second mom,” Simon said.

Robles has been with RCOE since 2007 and with Vista del Lago High School since 2016, but her career in emergency medicine and education dates to 1991. She has trained EMTs and paramedics across Riverside County. Many of the preceptors now mentoring her students were once her students themselves.

“They see one of my students come through and they say, ‘You are Maggie’s? Then we know you are ready,” she said.

Some students came in thinking the class would be easier than it was. Robles was upfront with them.

“This is the real world,” she said. “You’re going into situations that are life or death.”

Still, she also understands what students need beyond instruction.

“They need to feel like they belong. That they can do this. That someone believes in them.”

That balance of discipline and belief was something Simon felt from the beginning.

“She’s always pushed us, but you can tell she cares,” he said. “She wants us to succeed.”

A Bigger Picture

“There’s a reason they call it labor,” he said. “After seeing that, I think I finally wrapped my head around what it really means.”

Simon’s experience was singular, but it was also the product of something larger, a Career Technical Education program built to give students practical experience in real medical and emergency environments. Across Riverside County, students in dozens of CTE career pathways find themselves in labs, kitchens, workshops, studios, and emergency rooms, doing the kind of work that shapes future students.

“We bring the real world into the classroom,” Robles said.

CTE programs like the EMT pathway at Vista del Lago are helping students explore careers before graduation, build confidence, and prepare for jobs that are urgently needed in their communities.

Simon was planning to take his National Registry exam and enter the Hemet Fire Department’s cadet program. He also plans to enroll at Mt. San Jacinto College and eventually join a fire academy.

“Some of them go on to nursing. Some go to paramedic schools. One’s now a firefighter paramedic with Colton City,” Robles said with pride. “They come back and say, ‘We couldn’t have done it without this program.’ That’s what keeps me going.”

More Than a Class

The story of Simon and the baby boy born in the back of the ambulance is not just about timing.

It is about preparation.

About real training for real jobs.

About public education opening doors to experiences that change lives.

“That moment reminded me why we do what we do,” Robles said.

And while Simon may have been the one with the scissors in his hand, he was not alone.

He carried his training, his teacher, and his classmates with him.

And because of that, a baby took his first breath.