School evacuated, students treated after noxious spray released

Girls set off a what may have been a pepper spray canister in their locker room at Kenny Guinn Middle School on Monday, causing several minor injuries.

Paramedic crews responded to the school at about 9:30 a.m. They examined 30 girls who complained of scratchy throats, watery eyes and headaches and took five girls and a custodian to Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center, American Medical Response spokeswoman Kathi Rice said. The girls and the custodian were treated and released.

School officials notified parents of the girls who had been in the locker room, and some parents took their children home for the rest of the day.

The entire school was evacuated for about an hour before classes resumed.

Hazardous materials investigators said there were no harmful traces of the airborne substance left in the locker room.

Initial tests did not reveal whether the substance was pepper spray as some students suggested, or something else.

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