CREATE students released from hosps after classroom chem accident

by Tom Shortell/The Jersey Journal
Tuesday October 21, 2008, 1:21 PM

Jersey City Fire Department Hazmat truck is seen outside the CREATE Charter School in Jersey City after 12 students were injured in a chemistry class mishap this morning.

A dozen CREATE Charter School students were treated and released at two Jersey City hospitals this morning when a 10th-grade chemistry lab experiment went awry at the Lembeck Avenue school in Jersey City.

Around 8:35 a.m., the class was studying how different chemicals react when a strip of sulfate was placed into a chemical sink, releasing a colorless, odorless cloud of chemicals in the classroom, officials said.

The cloud set off the fire alarm and the entire school evacuated the building, said Steve Lipski, the school's executive director.

The Jersey City Fire Department was the first to respond, and it called in their Hazmat Unit when they learned the nature of the alarm. The Hudson County Regional Hazmat squad was also called in, officials said.

Eight students were sent to the Jersey City Medical Center, while the other four were taken to Christ Hospital. The students were brought there for precautionary reasons, Lipski said. There was some initial concern because two of the students have asthma, said Lipski, who is also a city councilman.

The chemistry teacher, Faria Yasmeen, and the school nurse accompanied the students to the hospitals.

"On the whole, we handled it very well," Lipski said, adding that Yasmeen would not be disciplined. "I feel very confident what we're doing is proper and in the best interest of the students."

The student body, 400 students from grades 6 to 12, was allowed back in the school after tests for airborne chemicals proved negative around 9:10 a.m., officials said.
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