By Elizabeth Ladzinski and Olivia Scheck
DNAinfo Reporter/Producers
CHELSEA — Five Chelsea public school students were taken to the hospital after coming into contact with a chemical substance believed to be pepper spray, a spokeswoman for the city's Department of Education confirmed.
The incident occurred about 10:30 a.m. Tuesday morning inside the Humanities Educational Complex at 351 W. 18th St., which is home to seven schools, the spokeswoman said.
Several people outside the school said it happened on the 4th floor, which houses 6th and 7th graders from the Quest2Learn school.
"It was really scary," said Ariel Franklin, 11, a 6th grader at Quest2Learn, who was picked up early, because of the incident. "First a few people started coughing then everybody started coughing."
Franklin said school officials gathered the students inside the building's auditorium and opened the windows after the incident.
"It seems like a quirky thing. They handled it pretty well," Franklin's mother, Bari Schlosser, 44, said.
But another mother who declined to give her name and said her 12-year-old was one of the students taken to Bellevue Hospital, was less understanding.
"This school, this school, this school – they don't have control over their kids!" the frazzled woman complained as she exited the building.
Crystal Richards, 18, of the James Baldwin School, also located inside the 351 W. 18th St. building, said she saw two students hooked up to oxygen tanks while firefighters treated the contaminated area.
School administrators were checking survailence footage, attempting to identify the person who released the pepper spay, according to a man who identified himself as a school supervisor in the building.
The man said that the culprit was believed to be an older student from one of the other schools.
"It was a devious prank and once the person is found they will be dealt with severely," he added.
Officials at Quest2Learn said the incident was under investigation and declined to comment further.
