Four students at Douglas County High School in Georgia reportedly
pepper sprayed dozens of their fellow classmates and teachers on Wednesday, forcing the school to evacuate, WSB-TV reported.
Around 10:15 a.m. local time on Wednesday, students and staff in the school's Banks building started complaining of itchy eyes and noses.
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"We were coming down the stairwell, we got to the water fountains and it just hit us like a brick wall,” student Lisa George told WSB-TV. "We started stumbling around, we couldn't see. I was choking, my friend was choking. One of my friends who was already outside pulled me out the door."
Security cameras inside the school, located 20 miles west of Atlanta, caught the students spraying pepper spray or mace inside a downstairs hallway. The pepper spray forced some 250 students to evacuate from the school.
"We had a few that had asthma and some issues, so they wanted to talk to an EMT," Principal Tim Scott told WSB-TV.
Douglasville Police Spokesman Capt. Greg Graff told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that police are investigating the incident, but they believe it is nothing more than a prank.
"It was what we thought it was ... kids being kids," Graff said.
Emergency medical technicians treated pepper spray victims. Firefighters cleared the Banks building, and the school used fans to disperse the chemical from the building. Classes resumed by 11 a.m. local time, school officials said.
"I'd a whole lot rather be safe than sorry when I'm dealing with our young people because safety comes first," Scott told WSB-TV.
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