Clark High evacuated; 23 students treated

Jace Radke and Keith Paul

Thursday, Sept. 5, 2002 | 11:33 a.m.

Clark High School was evacuated this morning and at least 23 students complained of minor respiratory problems from some type of odor, fire officials said.

After the first few students complained of shortness of breath, Las Vegas firefighters were called. Fire officials ordered the evacuation of the 2,500-student school on Pennwood Avenue at Arville Street about 10 a.m.

The fire department's hazardous materials unit suited up and went into the school to determine what caused the odor and illnesses, said Tim Szymanski, a fire department spokesman.

Three students were taken to University Medical Center. Their condition, and the condition of others complaining of breathing problems, was immediately unknown.

No determination of the reported odor was available this morning, but fire officials said several students told them they saw another student spraying something outside of a room in the hallway.

"We get these calls, and usually it's someone releasing some pepper spray or something like that in a hallway," Szymanski said. "That's what this is looking like, but we don't know. Right now, we're hoping for the best."

Students said the smell was like rotten eggs or "some sort of chemical."

Students were complaining of being woozy and said the odor was making them cough.

Szymanski said hazardous material teams would take samples to determine what the odor was. He said a result could be known "within the hour, it could be a day."

Officials closed the school , and it was immediately unclear whether a football game scheduled for this evening would be played.