Feb. 25--Sixteen grammar school students were taken to hospitals after pepper spray was released in a South Side classroom in the Oakland neighborhood on Thursday morning, authorities said.
A small canister discharged about 8:45 a.m. in a classroom with about 30 students at the University of Chicago Charter School's Donoghue Campus, at 707 E. 37th St., said Chicago Fire Department spokesman Larry Langford.
As of 9:20 a.m., about a dozen students were being checked out for irritated skin and runny eyes. There were no apparent serious injuries, but 16 were taken to hospitals in good condition, Langford said.
Eight were taken to University of Chicago Comer Children's Hospital and eight to Mercy Hospital and Medical Center.
The school teaches children from pre-kindergarten to fifth grade.
