FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. _ At first it was six sick students. Then it became seven. Before long it was more than a dozen.
By Monday afternoon 26 students and 1 staff member at Cardinal Gibbons High School had been hospitalized with symptoms ranging from headaches and shortness of breath to nosebleeds, seizures and passing out, officials said.
The ill were taken to three local hospitals and all are improving but the cause of the mass sickness is a mystery and remains under investigation, fire officials said.
Those affected fell ill after the student body attended a morning Thanksgiving prayer in the gymnasium, said Battalion Chief Stephen Gollan, a spokesman for Fort Lauderdale Fire Rescue.
After students returned to their classrooms that's when the adverse symptoms started to take hold, Gollan said.
Some students experienced seizures and shortness of breath, others had nosebleeds and some passed out, Gollan said.
The students who got sick were different ages, different grades, in different classrooms and from varying social groups, Gollan said.
All of that helped rule out a possible prank or drug-induced sickness, he said. "It was too many students and too widespread."
The first call to 911 went out at about 11:30 a.m. Paramedics, ambulances and a hazardous materials crew were at the school at 2900 NE 47th Street in Fort Lauderdale to try to figure out if the school had been exposed to some type of substance that made them sick.
"There was nothing found in any of the haz-mat sweeps," Gollan said. "There is no rhyme or reason at this time. We really don't know. It's very, very weird."
Alena Atonelli's son is a senior at the private Catholic school. She went to the campus after receiving a pre-recorded call from the school saying seven children had gotten sick during morning prayer, she said.
Antonelli called her son who told her he felt lightheaded and had a headache but was OK, she said
"I'm just nervous because if it's a leak why do they still have the kids in school?" Antonelli said. "It's nerve-wracking."
The school was put on lockdown while the Haz-Mat crew swept the campus, monitored for gas leaks and took swabs to test for over 5,000 chemical compounds, Gollan said. All was negative, he said.
Footage shot overhead by television news crews in helicopters showed students who appeared to be conscious and alert as they were escorted to ambulances and taken to Broward Health Medical Center, Broward Health North and Holy Cross Hospital.
Everyone who had been hospitalized was stable and feeling better by afternoon, Gollan said. "They are all improving and their blood work came back negative."
A total of 1,140 students attended school Monday. They were dismissed at their usual time of 2:40 p.m.
