Pepper spray sickens students at high school
SAN JOSE » At least one student was hospitalized and as many as 11 others were treated for exposure to a hazardousmaterial at Oak Grove High School on Wednesday, officials said.
San Jose firefighters were dispatched to the school at 285 Blossom Hill Road about 3 p.m. for reports of a foreign smell in a biology class, the East Side Union High School District said in a statement.
Ten students and one teacher “developed teary eyes and itchiness,” and left the classroom, according to the statement. One of the students was taken to a hospital for “tightness of breath.”
After ruling out a gas leak, the district determined the students and teacher had been exposed to pepper spray.
“There is no evidence of a gas leak,” the statement said. “It is believed to have been pepper spray.”
However, the fire department’s Hazardous Incident Team did not find traces of pepper spray — or any other hazardous material — inside the room, said Capt. Mitch Matlow.
“We’re not saying they’re wrong,” Matlow said. “We just can’t prove it was pepper spray.”
The symptoms described in the district’s statement are consistent with pepper spray exposure, Matlow said.
Matlow also said there were a dozen victims, not 11 as reported by the district. Half were treated at hospitals and half at the scene. An update on their condition was not immediately available.
The district did not immediately respond to a request for additional information about the incident, including how officials reached the conclusion pepper spray had been used.
Matlow urged anyone who was in the class where the exposure took place but left before being decontaminated to wash their clothes, bathe and call 911 if they feel sick.