FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA. (WSVN) - Students and staff members have returned to Cardinal Gibbons High School just a day after over a two dozen people were hospitalized due to a mysterious illness.
Doctors and school officials still don’t know what caused 26 students and one adult to be sent to the hospital Monday. But now, activities at the school have returned to normal.
“They told us that class was going to be the same today,” said senior Allen Bryant. “Everybody’s thinking that it’s something in the air system, but they had checks here, and they said there was nothing there.”
Hazmat crews checked the school for 5,000 chemicals, but didn’t find anything, and they don’t believe drugs were involved.
“There’s too many students, and it’s too widespread,” said Fort Lauderdale Fire Rescue Battalion Chief Stephen Gollan. “It’s not grouped to one specific social group of students.”
Many of the victims had similar symptoms: feeling lightheaded and dizzy, while some had nose bleeds and suffered seizures.
“My whole body was really hot, and then I started to get dizzy when I stood up,” said student Jason Fry. “They’re not really sure what had happened. All my tests were negative and so were the other people’s, so I don’t know if I’ll ever know.”
Fry said he saw two other students faint.
Officials said students started feeling sick after an assembly in the gym for a Thanksgiving prayer.
“It started with one girl passing out as she fell and had to hang on to the staircase,” said student Daden Louis Williams.
“And then, as we went to our classrooms, more people were passing out,” said student Adreanna Pierre, who was released from the hospital, “and then we went to our next class, and more people were passing out.”
Parents received alerts and rushed to campus while the school was being placed on lockdown.
“You think the worst immediately,” said one parent.
“If people are passing out, why are they keeping them contained?” added another parent.
All of the victims that were transported to local hospitals have since been released.
Officials are still investigating what caused the medical emergency.
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