Teacher, 4 Students Hurt in Science Class Mishap
A science teacher and four students at St. Francis High School in La Canada Flintridge received minor injuries Friday when a highly explosive chemical was mixed with water and shattered a glass beaker.
Los Angeles County fire officials said the victims suffered facial cuts from flying glass and received caustic burns when sodium was mixed with water during an experiment in a ninth-grade science class at the Catholic boys’ school.
School officials said they did not know whether a student or the instructor, Mike Mudie, 27, mixed the chemical.
About 25 other students in the class were not injured and there was no damage to the school, said Tom Moran, academic vice principal. The victims were taken by ambulance to Verdugo Hills Hospital in Glendale, where they were examined and treated for eye injuries. A hospital spokesman said all were expected to be released by late Friday.
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