CHEMICAL CLEARS CAMPUS; GAS PROMPTS EVACUATION.

Byline: Greg Botonis Daily News Staff Writer

More than 800 students, teachers and staff were evacuated Tuesday from Vasquez High School and High Desert School after someone dumped sodium into a boy's restroom toilet, creating a white cloud of hydrogen sulfide gas.

Three boys, two school staffers and four firefighters were taken to hospitals after being exposed to the gas, which carries a pungent odor similar to the smell after lighting a match. One of the staffers complained of difficulty breathing, but the others were treated as a precautionary measure, officials said.

``It was a lot of disturbance and a lot of problems for a malicious act. Fortunately everyone is OK and it's over,'' said Acton-Agua Dulce Unified School District Superintendent Don Banderas as students were filing back into their classrooms about 12:40 p.m.

The junior high and high school students, which share a campus, spent about two hours in school buses parked in a field, waiting while Los Angeles County Fire Department hazardous materials experts decontaminated the bathroom with citric acid and water.

Sodium, when it comes in contact with water, produces a gas which can irritate the nose and throat, fire officials said. If the substance is brought into direct contact with the skin, it can cause severe burns.

Sheriff's deputies said they are trying to find out who placed the material in the toilet and whether the chemical came from the school's chemistry lab or cleaning supplies or if it was brought onto campus.

The school was evacuated around 10:30 a.m. after a staffer noticed smoke and an odor coming from a boy's restroom. The staffer opened the door, ordered a boy inside the restroom to come out and picked up an unmarked container sitting in a rear stall. The staffer then carried the container out of the building, officials said.

School authorities contacted the Fire Department and district officials, and Banderas ordered the campus evacuated.

The boy inside the bathroom when the chemical was discovered and two other boys believed to have used the restroom after the canister had been removed were decontaminated by firefighters, who had them take off their clothes and then hosed them down.

The three boys, four firefighters and two school staffers were taken by ambulance to Lancaster Community and Antelope Valley hospitals.

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5 Photos

PHOTO (1--Color) A hazardous materials team enters the combined campus of Vasquez High School and High Desert School on Tuesday in Acton in response to a chemical found in a restroom.

(2-3--Color in AV Edition only) Top, a hazardous materials official leads a group across the Acton campus Tuesday after decontamination procedures. Above, more than 800 students, teachers and staff were evacuated from the site.

(4--Ran in AV Edition only) Students board buses Tuesday during the evacuation of the high school and middle school campus.

(5--Ran in AV Edition only) Firefighters interview students in the aftermath of Tuesday's chemical contamination in a boys' restroom on the campus.

Jeff Goldwater/Daily News