Mysterious Rash Causes Lockdown, Hazmat at Fla. School

May 17--HOLLYWOOD -- McArthur High School was the scene of a mass casualty response by state and county officials Wednesday after a mysterious rash prompted a lockdown affecting thousands of people and sent 12 students and two teachers to nearby hospitals with a police escort.

Members of the regional hazmat response team searched for a residue or other cause of the rash in the school at 6501 Hollywood Blvd. None was found, and officials said no one was stricken with breathing difficulties.

Meanwhile, 75 to 80 other students were moved from the affected building 900 on the campus to other areas of the high school while firefighters, police and ambulances stood by.

Hollywood responders placed a cocoon, called a patient isolation device, inside a Broward County bus that was commandeered to transport the victims to hospitals.

The cocoon would protect the bus from being contaminated by any poison, said Hollywood Fire Rescue Battalion Chief Joel Medina.

At the same time, 30 staffers at Memorial Regional Hospital prepared for the patients' arrivals, and outdoor decontamination showers were set up in a parking garage.

The FBI said it was aware of the situation, but deferred inquiries to city officials.

When the rash-stricken students and teachers arrived at the Memorial Regional Hospital complex around noon, they undressed and underwent multi-stage showers in chambers separated by gender, Medina said.

They were cleaned with gradually stronger emulsifying or neutralizing agents, even though the cause for the skin irritation was unknown, he said.

"It will remain a mystery unless Memorial [Regional Hospital] comes up with something," Medina said. "The kids had some sort of reaction. We just can't determine what it was."

The group was assessed in the emergency departments at Memorial andJoe DiMaggio Children's Hospital, according to spokeswoman Kerting Baldwin.

"After consultation with the hospital's infection control experts and the Department of Health's epidemiology team, we ruled out any infectious conditions," Baldwin said in an email. "At this point, there is no conclusive evidence as to the cause."

All patients were discharged to their families, Baldwin said.

With her hair wet from the "very embarrassing" shower, it was apparent Wednesday that sophomore Karina Barajas was going to be fine as she dove for her cellphone in a red plastic hazmat bag that contained her belongings.

She immediately began texting friends.

"It was scary, but it was just rashes on my arms and back," Barajas said after exiting the emergency room of Joe DiMaggio Children's Hospital.

Though the 16-year-old's rashes subsided and she seemed carefree, her mother was not.

"It's scary," Dora Sanchez said. "We really don't know what happened."

With a white sheet for a shawl, her daughter was clad in a red hospital T-shirt, green scrubs and tan socks for the ride home.

Other kids exiting the emergency room sought the red hazmat bags with their own belongings from a big plastic cart on the sidewalk.

Baldwin said the students' gear was cleared by the hazmat specialists.

The high school, where 2,300 are enrolled, will be open Thursday and will follow a regular schedule, school district officials said.

Despite samples taken from the air, desks and doorknobs in two classrooms at the high school, no cause was found for the hive-like rashes that a Broward School District spokeswoman said also resembled ant bites.

"We're confident we took every step available to try and determine what it was," Medina said. "We do know this: The symptoms never got any worse, and gradually went away."

No prank or threat was reported, and McArthur Principal Todd LaPace said students were questioned but "there appears to be no foul play."

It was not a drill, Medina said.

The symptoms began appearing on the kids' extremities about 9:30 a.m. while they were in a reading room on the second floor of a three-story building on the campus that is home to the Mustangs.

Not all of the students in that room were affected, officials said, but a second teacher from another classroom who came in contact with the larger group also had symptoms.

Both Barajas and one of the adults complained of rashes on their torsos.

There had been no new cleaning products used or science experiments happening in the affected rooms, the fire department spokesman said.

"There was nothing out of the ordinary," Medina said.

This is not the first time that schools have dealt with mysterious skin outbreaks in the past two years.

In Gainesville, Georgia, 20 high school students and a custodian were reportedly diagnosed in March with contact dermatitis, a contagious rash The Associated Press described as similar to poison ivy.

At a Chicago elementary school in March 2011, 31 students were treated and released at hospitals for a rash that remained a mystery, a result that matched an October 2010 incident at a Swansboro school in coastal North Carolina.

Officials there reportedly declined to identify the number of kids, also elementary level, who were stricken over two days with face, neck and arm rashes.

And in March 2009, 11 faculty members and nine students were itching at a McKees Rock school in suburban Pittsburgh from a rash that appeared in arm pits and torsos, according to a news report.

On Wednesday afternoon in one of the Memorial parking garages, a woman from a professional cleaning service scrubbed down the seats in the county bus used to transport the group to the hospital.

McArthur High Schools' reading rooms were to be cleaned Wednesday night by a hazmat company, officials said.

That was small comfort for a worried parent.

"It's just weird," Dora Sanchez said. "I'm hoping that everything is good. It's hard to feel at ease."

Staff researcher Barbara Hijek, staff writer Juan Ortega and staff photographer Joe Cavaretta contributed to this report.

ltrischitta@tribune.com or 954-356-4233

Copyright 2012 - Sun Sentinel, Fort Lauderdale, Fla.