By: Maureen Magee and Hailey Persinger
Published: October 8, 2010
San Diego — Toler and Bay Park elementary schools were taken off lock down status at around 4:30 p.m.
UPDATE 4 p.m. - Mission Bay High School has been taken off lock down status and all students were sent home at about 3:25 p.m., said the San Diego Fire Department. Lock downs for Bay Park and Toler elementary schools are still in effect.
UPDATE 2:40 p.m. - About 140 students have been isolated and are being screened for mercury contamination at Mission Bay High School after officials found that they'd entered classrooms with dangerous levels of the substance.
Three San Diego schools were put on lockdown Friday after students were exposed to mercury during their morning school bus ride.
Hazmat teams were deployed to Mission Bay High School and Toler and Bay Park elementary schools before noon after learning that a student brought liquid mercury from home in a plastic film canister and showed it to several students.
Mercury is considered more dangerous when heated and inhaled as a vapor.
After inspection, the toxic substance was found on student backpacks, clothing and other items. Hazmat officials confiscated those items and are decontaminating them.
All but two students on the bus were found to be uncontaminated. Those students have since been decontaminated and their belongings were confiscated for further decontamination. No students have shown signs of illness, San Diego Unified School District officials said.
Two classrooms were shown to have dangerous levels of mercury and are being aired out to speed up the decontamination process.
Parents were notified of the mercury exposure, according to the San Diego fire department.
The bus driver was found with high levels of mercury on his shoes and hazmat teams have been sent to his home, as well, officials said.
Mercury levels are tested on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the highest. Maurice Luque with the San Diego Fire Department said most of the readings from the incident have come in at around 3. The bus driver's shoes tested at level 10.
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