Updated 12/03/2008 06:24 AM
Mercury spill at middle school
NORTH ADAMS, N.Y. -- Kristoffer Dolle was at home in North Adams watching television with his mother Tuesday morning, even though he should be at school. But Kris and about 400 other Conte Middle School students had the day off for a serious reason.
"The North Adams Police Department, the North Adams Fire Department received a phone call from the Conte Middle School stating they had a substance on the floor they believe to be mercury," said E. John Morocco, North Adams Police Commissioner.
That was Monday at about 10 a.m. and emergency crews immediately responded. What investigators found was shocking.
"We were able to also determine through looking at video tape at the Middle School that it was intentionally done," Morocco said.
To view our videos, you need to
enable JavaScript. Learn how.
install Adobe Flash 9 or above. Install now.
Then come back here and refresh the page.
A Conte Middle School student intentionally spilled mercury, a dangerous toxic material, on the floor of the school and it was all caught on in-house surveillance cameras not made public by police. Students were immediately evacuated as Hazmat and other emergency responders attempted to clean it up. Officials say all faculty and students appear to be unharmed.
"This is a very short term exposure, that once the material is removed from the clothing and such you would not expect there to be any further, any symptoms. We've had no symptoms reported to us," said Michael Feeney of Massachusetts Public Health.
North Adams police say charges are pending against the juvenile offender, whose name and age cannot be released. Meanwhile, some parents are angry because they say the school never even contacted them.
"I believe with something that major, they probably should have called the parents and said, look, we need to send your children home because we have a situation. I mean, if we weren't home, what were they suppose to do?" asked concerned parent Rebecca Dolle.
"Fortunately my daughter is okay, but it's scary that they don't even contact us to tell us anything on what's going on. Just hear it on the news?" said another concerned parent.
And one more piece of information parents can hear on the news is that school at Conte Middle School is closed Wednesday. Officials say it's too soon to say when it'll reopen. Now, as for a motive, police say this student simply wanted the school to close.