Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Junior high school reopens after 1/4 cup of mercury is cleaned up

0912WalterJohnsonJH05

Steve Marcus

Parents and a student check on whether they can pick up personal belongings at Walter Johnson Junior High School Monday Sept. 12, 2016. Classes at the school were cancelled Monday for a third day due to mercury contamination.

A Las Vegas middle school is back in session nearly a week after a mercury discovery forced more than 1,000 students into a quarantine that lasted overnight.

The Clark County School District said today that students are back at Walter Johnson Junior High School.

A few dribbles of the neurotoxin were first found on campus Wednesday morning, prompting a hazmat situation that lasted until 5 a.m. Thursday.

It was the largest decontamination effort in the history of the school district and Las Vegas fire department.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says the cleanup effort has yielded more than a quarter cup of the element.

Officials say the campus has been fully decontaminated though they're still investigating how the mercury got to the school.

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