Pepper Spray Sends 13 Pupils to Hospitals

Thirteen middle school students were rushed to hospitals Friday after a boy playing with a pepper spray canister accidentally released the spray in a classroom, authorities said.

The class at Dr. Russell I. Johnson Middle School was evacuated, and about half of the 28 students began to feel stinging and itching within 10 minutes, said Dennis Shell, spokesman for the Orange County Fire Authority.

“One girl has a history of asthma,” Shell said. “It was really hard on her.”

A boy had brought the pocket-size canister to class and had been showing it to a classmate at 11:30 a.m., during a class party to celebrate spring, authorities said.

“The other didn’t know what it was, so he sprayed a little bit of it,” said Barbara Hoopes, a spokeswoman for the Westminster School District.

“As you know, with pepper spray in a closed environment, it doesn’t take very much to cause problems,” Shell said.

The seventh- and eighth-graders were treated for nausea, breathing difficulty, headaches and watering eyes and later released, Shell and school officials said.

The two boys, whose names were not released, were suspended from school for five days while authorities investigate the case, Hoopes said. Westminster police said they could face charges of felony assault with caustic chemicals.