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Stony Mountain kids sick from tear gas used in jail training

By: Nick Martin

Posted: 10/17/2012 2:14 PM | Comments: 0 | Last Modified: 10/17/2012 4:57 PM | Updates

Thirty-five children and two teachers went home ill from Stony Mountain School today after tear gas from a training exercise drifted from the neighbouring prison.

"At 8:30 a.m., some of the kids came in and complained that their eyes were irritated and there was a funny smell," Interlake School Division superintendent Ross Metcalfe said.

Metcalfe said that paramedics checked out the children before letting them go home.

"The penitentiary has been tremendous neighbours," Metcalfe emphasized. "They had some kind of training drill -- it didn’t dissipate properly."

Metcalfe said that the school is sending home a letter to parents. The prison property is about 100 metres from the school, but the prison building is a kilometre away, Metcalfe said.

Stony Mountain Institution spokesman Chris McLauchlan confirmed that staff were conducting routine tear gas training this morning in an open area about 500 metres from the school.

"We’ve been doing this for more than 10 years, and we’ve never had an incident before," McLauchlan said.

There was little or no wind, and prison staff were very surprised to hear that the tear gas had drifted, he said.

History

Updated on Wednesday, October 17, 2012 at 4:57 PM CDT: Corrected spelling of McLauchlan

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