BUENA PARK
Three junior high school students may be suspended or expelled for their roles Monday in the “dumb stunt” of helping other pupils sniff fumes from an industrial-grade marker. Thirteen students were sent to the hospital, complaining of shortness of breath, nausea and headaches, police said. They were treated and released to their parents. Some of the students could face disciplinary action under a drug-use ban.
Fumes from the marker wafted through a third-period classroom at Buena Park Junior High School about noon. The Magnum 44 marker belonged to a seventh-grade boy, who took it out of his pocket to show a girl, police said. The eighth-grade girl waved the marker in the air, then colored a circle on a piece of paper and passed it around for others to sniff.
“If the children were actually trying to smell this to try to get high, then they would have been in violation of the law,” said Buena Park public information officer Sgt. Ken Coovert. “Our indication was that this is not what they were intending to do.”
Those who handled the marker face five days’ suspension and some could be expelled, said Assistant Principal Nancy Rios.
Start your day right
Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
