CO scare at Houston school hospitalizes 11

By Dale Lezon
The Houston Chronicle

HOUSTON — Nine fourth-grade students and two teachers at Harvard Elementary School were sent to a hospital Friday with headaches and nausea after elevated levels of carbon monoxide were found in their classroom, school officials said.

Inspectors are trying to determine why the carbon monoxide level was higher in one fourth-grade classroom at the school, said Lisa Kinney, a spokeswoman for the Houston Independent School District.

That classroom has been cleared pending further investigation, but the rest of the campus is operating as normal, Kinney said.

The problem was detected after a worker accidentally set off a fire alarm about 9 a.m. at the school, at 810 Harvard in the Heights, Kinney said.

The school was evacuated, she said, but after everyone returned, a fourth-grade teacher complained of a gas odor in her room and officials evacuated the building again and alerted the Houston Fire Department.

Firefighters inspected the classroom and the building and found no gas leaks, but said the classroom had a slightly elevated level of carbon monoxide, Kinney said.

Nine fourth-graders, their teacher and a teacher in a nearby classroom were taken to Memorial Hermann Hospital for evaluation, Kinney said.

No one else complained of ill effects, she said, and the other students from that class were sent to another classroom as a precaution.

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