Amy Deffenbacher, Dean of Students, released information on the incidents of 5th period in the Chemistry lab. The following press release was emailed to the faculty and parents alike.

As many of you know, this morning during 5th period {around 9:30 a.m.} we evacuated the upstairs of Building 6 because of a smoke issue that occurred in our Chemistry Lab.

The Chemistry activity today was to investigate the chemical reaction of KNO3 + sugar which burns to form CO2, H20 {water}, N2 and K2CO3 {potassium carbonate}. This is a safe classroom experiment, however one group did not follow the heating safety guidelines and the device got too hot resulting in a tremendous amount of smoke being produced. The smoke is a combination of carbon dioxide, nitrogen gas {80% of our air is nitrogen} and water vapor.

Students responded well and promptly left the room. All heating units were turned off and the situation contained.

The local fire department was consulted, and they determined that no further action was needed and their presence was not necessary.

Thanks to a great staff and quick action, students are safe and clean-up is under way.

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