By Diana Moskovitz, McClatchy Newspapers –
HOLLYWOOD, Fla. — A day after a rash sent 14 people from Hollywood’s McArthur High School to the hospital, health officials are still scratching their heads as to what caused it.
So far, it’s a mystery with no answers.
Said the Broward County Health Department: “No further developments.”
Said the Broward School District: “Nothing’s turned up.”
Said Hollywood Fire-Rescue Battalion Chief Joel Medina after meeting with hazmat team members and physicians on Thursday: “The incident was caused by an unspecified, undetermined irritant.”
After the dozen students and two teachers suddenly broke out in rashes during a second-period reading class Wednesday, they were placed on a county bus lined in plastic and taken to the hospital.
There, at a mass casualty decontamination area in the underground garage at Hollywood’s Memorial Regional Hospital, the students and teachers disrobed, walked through two inflatable corridors with showers — one for males, one for females — and donned hospital gowns before being allowed inside for evaluations.
But nothing was found on them that would have caused the welts on their arms and legs.
After being evaluated, everyone was released.
Back at the school, hazmat crews combed the reading room looking for clues. They tested for a slew of possible contaminants.
Medina said the team measured oxygen levels, checked the pH and looked for anything that might have been out of place.
If any of these had been off, say the oxygen levels were low or the pH was too high, that would have provided a clue as to what was the culprit.
“We got nothing coming back,” Medina said.
The hazmat crews are going with the theory that the affected came into direct contact with whatever caused the problem. But that was as much as the hazmat team could tell.
“It’s not uncommon,” he said, “to have an irritant that you just can’t isolate.”
The school underwent an intense cleaning overnight and by Thursday, the reading classroom where the outbreak occurred had received a “top-to-bottom” cleaning, said Broward schools spokeswoman Nadine Drew.
As students returned to the classrooms Thursday, Broward County Health Department personnel were at the school, continuing their probe.
Several of the students affected also returned to school Thursday, Drew said.
Despite the lack of answers Thursday, there was one question that could be answered: Was it a prank?
“There is nothing to suggest that this was a prank,” Drew said.
