Two juvenile suspects were in custody Tuesday after a chemical device ruptured at SkyView Academy in Highlands Ranch, Colorado.
As a precaution, five people -- four students and one teacher -- were transported to an area hospital, the Douglas County Sheriff's Office said in a statement. All have been medically cleared and released.
Any decision on potential charges is pending. The names of the juveniles were not released. News that they had been taken into custody first spread on Twitter.
"The initial investigation was to determine if this was a malicious or accidental event. The investigation is continuing; however through our ongoing investigation we have been able to determine this was not accidental and (are) treating this as a criminal investigation," the statement read.
The sheriff's office declined to discuss specifics of the device other than to say that the chemical reaction within the container caused the device to rupture. The incident took place in a classroom, not a chemistry lab.
"Students were first evacuated and then emergency responders determined that the gym was safe -- so they were brought back where it was warm and safe," said Sgt. Ron Hanavan, a spokesman with the sheriff's office.
Classes at SkyView Academy -- a charter school with students from pre-school age through the 11th grade, according to its website -- are expected to resume Wednesday.
My Thoughts:
I'm curious as to the age of these suspects. The article does not specify the age or grade of the suspects but has determined it was not accidental although they do not mention what the chemical device was composed of. On CNN's website many people were making comments in reference to it being dry ice and a soda bottle. It would be very interestiing to know exactly what this chemical device was and how they will handle determining if it was a malicious intent or just a matter of kids goofing around and how they will handle this situation.
I always have a hard time reading the comments on news sites. Anytime I do decide to journey down that rabbit hole there is a lot of politically charged arguing and speculation. I think knowing how old the kids are would offer some insight into whether or not it was malicious or not. However, I am glad that the news sources don't release very much info about the suspects. I've noticed that when a name or picture are released in connection with a high profile incident, they are very quickly judged guilty by the public. Even if the person is found to be not guilty their lives are forever tainted by the connection to the incident. Very sad stuff.
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