BETHLEHEM, Pa. — Five St. Michael the Archangel School students passed out about 9:30 this morning in a nearby Upper Saucon Township church, according to Principal Lori Rutkiewicz.
The affected students were conscious at 10:15.
Eleven students in all were taken to the children’s emergency room at Lehigh Valley Hospital in Salisbury Township, officials said. A woman also was taken to the hospital, Upper Saucon Fire Chief Chuck Castetter said.
Diocese of Allentown spokesman Matt Kerr said the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary Church and the school were evacuated as a precaution, but nothing was found in either location that immediately could be blamed for the children and the woman falling ill. He said they could have been overcome by heat.
Castetter said detectors from the fire department and a Lehigh County hazardous materials crew did not detect any gas in the church or the school.
Upper Saucon police officer Steve Kuebler said the township fire department is working to determine what led people to become ill.
All other students were sent home from the middle school. Rutkiewicz asked parents who drive students to school to pick up their children.
A gas company was working nearby and a carbon monoxide alarm was going off in the basement at the school at 4121 Old Bethlehem Pike, according to emergency radio reports.
The school sits on the grounds of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary Church. The children passed out this morning in the church, Rutkiewicz said.
“We thought the church was just stuffy at first, but then people started passing out,” eighth-grader Bradley Mancini, 14, said. “I personally thought it was a bad horror movie. No one took it very seriously until the fire department got here.”
Seventh-grader Ivan Korpics added, “We were all in Mass and kids just started dropping.”
The 12-year-old initially thought a student had tripped, but quickly realized something else was going on as others began to fall.
“It was pretty bad,” said Korpics, of Upper Saucon.
Sixth-grader Daniel Glemser said students were shaken up by the incident.
“This one person just fainted. She was walking and she fell down and her eyes got all wide. ... People were crying and they were freaking out,” said Glemser, 11, who attends the school with brother, Drew, 13, and sister, Caitlin, 14, all of Upper Saucon.
School staff quickly ushered students out of the sanctuary and onto the lawn, seventh-grader Drew Glemser said.
“It was like a fire drill,” he said.
He and his brother said they detected a “funky” odor in the church.
The school invited grandparents to this morning’s Mass, which was to include a May procession, the siblings said.
The Glemsers’ grandfather, Ray, noted, “We didn’t quite get to that.”
Ray Glemser said he didn’t see anybody “freaking out” and described the building evacuation as “orderly.”
Caitlin Glemser added, “It was orderly, but kids were really upset.”
UGI spokesman Joseph Swope earlier said a crew has been dispatched to St. Michael’s to investigate. At this point, however, no determination has been made, he said.
“They’re still investigating what’s going on,” Swope said. “It’s not clear right now whether it’s gas odor or carbon monoxide.”
Further information will become available after the crew makes a full assessment, Swope said.
Republished with permission from the Express-Times