Cedar Hill school gas leak sends students, staff to hospital

A gas leak at a school in Cedar Hill sent students and faculty to the hospital on Wednesday. The fire department brought out a hazmat team to find the source of the leak.

The fire chief says 30 people at Collegiate High School & Academy were symptomatic and reported nausea. Of those, six students and two teachers were transported to the hospital as a precaution.

A district spokesperson says some teachers noticed an unfamiliar smell around 1 p.m. That's when they decided to evacuate and call the fire department. Then closed school for the day.

“They worked with Dallas hazmat, came out also to help them with gas detectors to go through the building,” said Cedar Hill Fire Chief John Ballard. “They believe they found a gas valve in one of the science labs that was partially open. They shut it off. They checked the building and they cleared everything on it.”

The school spokesperson says this school has 500 middle and high school students. The eleventh and twelfth graders take classes at Cedar Hill College and were not present at the time.

That spokesperson says the district will be reviewing policies and procedures to figure out how this valve was left open in the first place.