Chatfield High School will reopen this morning after something in the air sickened students and staff Friday.
The cause hasn’t been found, but there is an outside chance it was a can of Mace that a student sprayed on campus sometime earlier, authorities said Sunday.
“We talked to a student who said he accidentally sprayed a little from an old can of Mace,” said Jim Shires, spokesman for the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office. “But there’s nothing that can prove conclusively that’s what made people sick.”
The student was not charged. A decision has not been been made concerning punishment by the school, said spokeswoman Lynn Setzer.
“I suspect (a decision) will be made on Monday,” Setzer said Sunday afternoon. “It is considered a weapon, and they’re not supposed to have it at school.”
She said tests over the weekend found no problems. “We let in fresh air, we ran the air-conditioning all weekend to filter the air, and our environmental engineers went back in this morning,” she said. “They found absolutely nothing that was toxic at all, and they felt no effects from being in there.”
Twenty-five students and staff members at the school were seen and released from local hospitals Friday. The episode was limited to people in a corner of the cafeteria where a freshman orientation session was taking place, Setzer said.
Joey Bunch: 303-954-1174 or jbunch@denverpost.com
