Five students at the M. Clifford Miller Middle School in Lake Katrine were transported to HealthAlliance Hospital on Friday afternoon, March 3, due to exposure to what the district believes was pepper spray.
Following a brief lockdown and investigation at the school, schools superintendent Paul Padalino said the situation had been resolved and that the incident, while unfortunate and dangerous, was not malicious. Padalino added that one of the five girls exposed to the inflammatory agent had brought it to school and that the situation appears to have stemmed from a collective curiosity. The incident happened when the spray was released and blown back in their faces during recess, causing stinging and redness of the eyes and skin.
“The girls were together on this,” Padalino said in an interview. “They weren’t spraying it at another kid or anything like that. I don’t know if they just wanted to see what it was like, but it wasn’t used in an altercation or used as a weapon.”
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