Boys Burned at Hart High Face Surgery

Two severely burned William S. Hart High School students face surgery this morning, as school district administrators consider a ban on explosive science experiments like the one that blew up in their faces.

Hart Principal Gary Fuller said Friday he would address the students who witnessed Wednesday’s accident when classes resume Monday, but it was unclear whether Thomas Magee, the teacher who was in charge of the experiment, will be at school.

“I’ve talked to Mr. Magee, and I think that’s up to him,” Fuller said.

Magee had taken his class to the football field, where they conducted a velocity experiment by firing tennis balls out of two “cannons” made of apple juice cans and fueled by methanol--wood alcohol. Other students said that, after several disappointing attempts to fire the tennis balls, some students began adding fuel to the juice cans, and may have poured more fuel atop already-burning alcohol.

Christopher James, 17, of Stevenson Ranch, was holding one of the devices when it exploded, enveloping his face, neck, chest, shoulders and hands in a cloud of flaming liquid. His larynx and lungs were also scorched by toxic, superheated gas. He suffered second- and third-degree burns over 50% of his body.

Nolan Lemar, 17, who was standing next to James holding the alcohol bottle, suffered severe burns over 12% of his body.

Both students were awaiting surgery and skin grafts at the Grossman Burn Center at Sherman Oaks Hospital.

Students have said the group of about 35 teenagers in the class had separated into two groups, and the teacher, moving between them, was about 10 yards away at the time of the explosion.

“I took Mr. Magee down to the hospital [Thursday] afternoon to visit the boys in the hospital,” Fuller said Friday. When they got there, they found the boys’ families dining on a complete Thanksgiving dinner delivered to them by other parents and teachers from Santa Clarita.

“Mr. Magee met Chris’ mother, Carolyn, and they talked,” Fuller said. “It was an emotional experience for Mr. Magee and for Carolyn, they embraced each other. . . . Carolyn was very kind and nice to Mr. Magee. They looked at each other and Mr. Magee said, ‘I am so sorry this happened.’

“ ‘We understand it was an accident,’ ” Fuller recalled the mother saying. “ ‘And how are you doing?’ ”

Carolyn James, in an interview Friday, said her son was conscious and alert--though unable to speak because of feeding and respiration tubes in his throat. She said he had begun looking around his hospital room Friday.

“The doctor checked his corneas and said they were OK, thank God,” she said. Visibly weary, James said she was focused on the welfare of her son and was more curious about the accident than outraged by it.

“I have questions about what happened,” she said. “But I’m not emotional about it.”

School officials also have questions about the accident, although they do not plan to conduct a formal investigation until after they have received incident reports from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s and Fire departments.

Robert Lee, superintendent of the William S. Hart Unified High School District, said he had questions “as far as how the class was dealing with safety.”

“I want to know what kind of safety precautions did the teacher have ahead of time,” Lee said.

Lee said the experiment has been a part of Hart High’s physics curriculum for a number of years and may also be conducted at other district schools. “That is something we’re going to look into on Monday,” Lee said, adding that he was unaware of the velocity experiment until Wednesday’s accident.

Lee, who has a biology degree, said he didn’t know why methanol was used in the experiment, but defended Magee’s decision to allow students to fire the cannons.

“Students need to have the hands-on experience,” he said. “How much of this is a matter of sheer accident versus something that we need to modify--no one knows yet.”

If the future of the velocity experiment is in question, Magee’s future appeared more promising Friday. Lee and Fuller stood by the teacher, who could not be located for comment.

“I know it’s premature, but I don’t foresee anything happening to him,” Fuller said. “I think this is an accident that occurred in a well-supervised environment.

“He’ll be back, I know that. We’re going to work with him.”

Meanwhile, James said her son was aware of his scheduled surgery this morning and had been repeatedly asking the time of day.

“I don’t know if he knows how serious his injuries are,” she said.

Dr. A. Richard Grossman, director of the burn center that bears his name, has called James’ condition life-threatening, and said the road ahead is full of daunting challenges. Particularly grave are the internal injuries to his respiratory system, the doctor said.

Both youths face a difficult series of reconstructive surgeries, in which doctors will repeatedly cut away infected flesh and apply multiple grafts of skin taken from other areas of their bodies. Finally, the boys will require months of painful rehabilitation and may have to endure a lifetime of disfigurement.

“The main thing I want to ask is that people pray,” Carolyn James said. “That’s the most powerful thing people can do right now.”

Although the tragedy shadowed Thanksgiving for many Santa Clarita families, it also tapped a wellspring of holiday spirit, with strangers driving over the mountains to the hospital to donate blood, offer food and lend moral support to the two families.

Teachers and parents from Canyon High School, a longtime rival of Hart High, followed Thursday’s delivered Thanksgiving dinner with a second turkey with all the trimmings.

“The outpouring of love and support has just been incredible,” Carolyn James said.

Ryan Haag, 17, a Hart High student who played on Lemar’s baseball team, said his friend was recovering nicely and was in good spirits, but quoted Lemar as describing Wednesday’s accident with the words: “Everything just went wrong.”