Carroll students sent home early because of bedbugs

Sykesville Middle School students at the Outdoor School were dismissed early Thursday afternoon because of an outbreak of bedbugs, Carroll County Public Schools Assistant Superintendent of Instruction Steven Johnson confirmed. Johnson said there are at least two cabins at the Outdoor School, located at the Hashawha Environmental Center near Westminster, that have bedbugs. If there are bugs in just one cabin, usually they can mitigate it, he said. Students were released to go back to Sykesville Middle around 1 p.m., he said. Any belongings in the infested cabins would be sealed and returned to the school in a bus by themselves, Johnson said. Johnson said the school system also will be providing students with resources about what to do with the clothing and sheets. Johnson said the plan is to have students back in the Outdoor School next week. In what Bowie High School Principal Robynne Prince described as a “senior prank,” a group of students sprayed other students and staff members with squirt guns and set off fireworks in a school hallway Tuesday morning. The incident occurred about 10:45 a.m., according to a letter posted on the school website. Prince said the incident led to an evacuation of the school. “The students involved will be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law and disciplined according to the PGCPS Student Code of Conduct,” she wrote According to the code, a student who “disrupts the school environment and/or school-related activities” can face a suspension of one to three days. A long-term suspension (four to 10 days) or an extended suspension (11-45 days) may be administered “for behavior that significantly disrupts the educational environment in the school, on the bus or at school activities and affects the safety of others.”