Blue Island school to stay closed after haz-mat situation
BY LAUREN FITZPATRICK lfitzpatrick@southtownstar.com March 17, 2011 1:24PM
Maps
Updated: August 4, 2011 4:20PM
A Blue Island intermediate school remains closed today while officials clean up a hazardous materials situation that hospitalized at least 30 students and staff and figure out its cause.
At least 22 pupils, all fourth- and fifth-graders, and 10 school staffers, including the principal, were taken to area hospitals from Paul Revere Intermediate School on Thursday afternoon and the building was evacuated, Blue Island Mayor Don Peloquin said.
Ambulances took students from the school, 12331 S. Gregory St., to at least seven different hospitals for evaluation, as far away as St. Margaret Mercy Hospital in Dyer, Ind., Peloquin said.
The first 10 were taken to MetroSouth Medical Center in Blue Island. Conditions were not available Thursday evening, but some patients, including Revere’s principal, already had been treated and released.
“They’re making sure the kids are getting taken care of,” Peloquin said.
A janitor who was mixing bleach and a drain cleaner in a janitor’s closet was the first individual overcome by the fumes, Peloquin said. It had nothing to do with ongoing construction on the school, he said.
The fumes didn’t get into classrooms, but officials believe students were exposed to a strong bleach smell while exiting rooms into the hallway, Cook County School District 130 Supt. Ray Lauk said. The pupils taken to the hospital mostly had complained of shortness of breath, he said. Additional ambulances waited around until after dismissal just in case, he said.
“We want to be safe,” Lauk said.
The janitor took the brunt of the fumes, but no one’s injuries were life-threatening, Lauk said. A teacher accompanied each child taken to the hospital, Peloquin said.
At least 75 parents showed up to nearby Hart Park in the middle of the afternoon Thursday awaiting word on their children. They had received calls through the school’s emergency response system telling them about the hazmat situation and instructing them to pick their children up at the park on Western Avenue.
District 130 also released a statement on its Web site about the chemical reaction. And anyone who still has questions should call (708) 489-3533, according to the district.
Investigators from the Environmental Protection Agency also are expected at the school today.
Peloquin said that parents of hospitalized students received personal calls from the school or the hospital. Ruby Trejo, whose two grandsons attend the school, attempted to enter the school to retrieve her grandsons but was blocked by Peloquin. Trejo said one of her grandsons was taken to Palos Community Hospital, while the other grandson was not affected.
As an ambulance from Dixmoor raced by Hart Park, Maria Ruiz signed out her son from fourth grade. She also fetched her daughter from kindergarten, even though the younger child attended classes in a separate building that was not affected.
Her children were, thankfully, both OK, she said.
“They got lucky,” she said.
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