18 elementary students, teacher hospitalized following dry ice experiment in Gallatin

GALLATIN, Tenn. (WSMV) – Eighteen elementary school students and a teacher at Vena Stuart Elementary School were taken to hospitals after a dry ice experiment Friday morning.

Jeremy Johnson, a Sumner County Schools public information officer, says the routine experiment was being conducted by an outside vendor.

A statement from Sumner County Schools said several students began saying they felt ill after the dry ice experiment was completed.

EMS was called, and the 18 students and the teacher were taken to area hospitals as a precaution.

The statement said all of the students and the teacher are in good condition.

The Gallatin Fire Department ventilated the room where the experiment was conducted.

Johnson says the district is working with the fire department to determine what went wrong, and that the experiment may be removed from the classroom from now on, but that it’s something the district is still looking at.

A Sumner County Schools spokesman said the science experiments have been a regular occurrence.