An investigation has been launched by police after a group of school children ended up drinking floor sealant instead of milk.
Children aged between 5 and 12 were attending Sit’ Eeti Shaanax Glacier Valley Elementary School in Alaska. On Tuesday, June 14th the school came under critical observation after students started to complain about their breakfast.
After multiple complaints about burning sensations in their mouths and throats, it was found that the students had been given floor sealant instead of milk. Only one child required hospital treatment.
Juneau police have started an investigation after hearing of the news but as of now nothing, ‘criminal’ is said to have taken place.
Bridget Weiss, Superintendent said, “We do want a thorough investigation of what happened, how it happened, and they’re trained investigators.”
The school reported that as soon as the staff became aware of the issue they entrusted the children to stop drinking it and then removed it from the premises.
Reportedly, pest control and parents were notified of the situation straight away.
A contractor named NANA Management Services provided the dispenser which contained the milk and food items.
It has been revealed that the dispenser had been loaded with the floor sealant instead of milk and that both items were in almost identical plastic containers.
Weiss reported to the police, ‘don’t know how [it] happened,’ somehow the two bags ended up on the same pallet when being transported from cardboard boxes stored in a site off-campus.
“That pallet was delivered, and the assumption was that it was milk because that’s what we thought was being delivered,”
School standards require any chemicals to have a low ingestion risk and due to this, there was no chemical odour to the sealant.
NANA Management services stated, “We are in the midst of a comprehensive investigation that will look at every contributing factor to determine exactly what happened and to identify potential safety measures.”
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