According to a recent report, 20 children and one adult were sickened after chemicals being used in a training exercise at a San Francisco jail got out of control.
A release from the San Mateo County Department of Emergency Management shared on Tuesday afternoon that “there was a report of an ‘odor of smoke’ near Portola Elementary School.”
“At this time, we have information this is not related to nefarious activity and was simply a mishandling of the chemical spray,” the report said.
San Mateo County Supervisor David Canepa shared with the San Francisco Chronicle that the chemicals being used at the San Bruno jail included tear gas and pepper spray.
After getting out of control, the chemicals wafted over a hill to Portola Elementary School, where the 20 students and one adult suffered irritated eyes, throats, and noses, Canepa said. The situation was not serious enough to warrant hospitalization, but an ambulance and other first responders arrived at the school.
Canepa shared that the sheriff’s office needs to tighten up its procedures, pointing to other incidents, like fights at the jail.
“All those other incidents, and now they have the audacity to release pepper spray and tear gas in a training, and it goes uphill to Portola elementary?” Canepa told the outlet. “Here’s the deal — the sheriff’s office needs to assure the community that they’ve figured out a plan so that this never, ever, ever happens again. What if it had been worse? There should be protocols in place. I am absolutely floored that in this day and age, something like this can occur.”
The San Francisco Sheriff’s Office has responded to the incident, saying that “a planned public safety training involving chemical agents extended beyond designated training areas and affected the San Bruno community, including a school.”
“At 12:45 p.m., a routine, two-hour multi-agency tactical training class for crowd management, intervention, and control was underway inside a structure on an isolated section of our San Bruno jail property,” Tara Moriarty, director of communications for the sheriff’s office, said in the statement.
Moriarty also noted that the sheriff’s office notified local agencies prior to the training, which she said was “critical” for law enforcement to go through.
“This is an unprecedented situation that we take very seriously,” she said. “We sincerely apologize to Portola Elementary School, its faculty and students, and their families for this unforeseen event, which must have been especially scary for children…In light of this incident, the department is pausing all future chemical agent training exercises, while it reviews current practices to make it safer for our neighbors and minimize any impacts on the community.”
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