Cape Town - A school prank involving poison backfired when 24 pupils were sent to hospital for nausea and vomiting this week.
The three pranksters, one of whom has since stayed away from school, have been suspended and face disciplinary action.
On Monday, a Grade 10 pupil at Silverstream High School in Manenberg took a bitter spray – used to discourage animals from licking wounds – to school and got two of his friends to spray it in the air inside two classrooms.
School governing body chairperson Fareed Jansen said the pupil admitted to knowing the substance would have some negative impact, but not to the extent that 24 pupils would need hospital treatment.
Three of the pupils were seriously affected and given medication, Jansen said, adding that the pupil told him he had “tested” the substance the day before, and aside from it leaving a bitter taste in his mouth, he did not physically react.
“This was a prank gone wrong. It took about two or three minutes to affect the kids, and they were taken to hospital. The boy who brought the spray to school on Monday has not returned to school, and his father said he had been threatened. He really upset a lot of parents in the area. Some of the pupils had asthma and reacted terribly to the prank,” Jansen said.
Emergency Medical Services spokesperson Robert Daniels said the pupils were taken to Heideveld and Hanover Park community day centres.
Provincial education spokesperson Paddy Attwell said the pupils would face a disciplinary hearing.