Carbon monoxide scare at Florida school sends at least 22 students to hospital, officials say

More than 20 students were taken to the hospital after a Carbon monoxide scare at a Florida school, according to officials.

Everyone at Cypress Junction Montessori’s middle school building in Winter Haven, Florida, was evacuated Friday morning after carbon monoxide detectors went off inside.

Multiple students were taken to the hospital as a precaution, including 11 who were transported by ambulance and 11 who were taken by school bus, the Winter Haven Fire Department told The Independent.

All the students were checked at the scene by medical professionals, and those taken for further treatment either had prior medical issues or were experiencing symptoms that were distressing to them, the fire department said.

Cypress Junction Montessori is a public charter school that teaches preschool through 8th grade. The Independent has reached out to the school for comment.

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There turned out to be no gas leak inside the school, but rather the carbon monoxide detectors were detecting something outside, quite a distance from the middle school building, according to the fire department.

Ventilators were put inside the school as a precaution, and the air quality was deemed “all good,” the fire department said.

Sisters, Luna and Coral Brooks, from the elementary school building, had begun to worry that carbon monoxide would reach their classrooms.

“There were also a lot of police and we were also about to have a fire drill so there was a lot going on. Everybody was OK. But there was a gas that is bad, it was in the other building,” Luna told Spectrum Bay News 9.

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Luna and Coral’s father, Phillip Brooks, said that Cypress Junction Montessori’s principal, Dr. Kris Newman-Lake, had been in constant contact with parents.

“The principal has been emailing the parents all day, kind of keeping us up to date as they can, you know, as things develop. But yeah, it’s never a good day when you see your kids' school on the news with fire trucks and police cars everywhere,” he told the outlet.