Children at M.S. 137 America’s School of Heroes in Ozone Park, Queens, began feeling sick around 10:49 a.m. Friday, sending seven of them to a nearby medical center as hazmat units descended on the school to figure out why. One additional child refused medical attention, and by Friday evening, the cause of the illness remained unknown.
Students Went to the Nurse Before Being Rushed Out
According to PIX11, the children went to the school nurse’s office saying they all felt sick around 10:49 a.m. Fire officials told the outlet that seven children were then taken to a nearby medical center, while one child refused medical attention on the scene.
Because the source of the sudden illness was not immediately clear, hazmat units also responded to the scene, the outlet reported. As of Friday evening, a potential cause for the outbreak remained under investigation, and no further details on what triggered the symptoms had been released.
No Word Yet From the School System
PIX11 said it reached out to New York City Public Schools for comment but did not hear back at the time of publishing. No statement from the school system addressing what happened, whether the building was affected more broadly, or how students are doing has been made public.
The incident comes years after M.S. 137 drew scrutiny for an unrelated cafeteria issue. A 2017 snippet from Food Plight noted that an inspector found 1,500 flies at the school that July, and that more than a dozen city schools, including M.S. 137, faced mandatory re-examinations that year when cafeteria inspection results came back unsatisfactory. That older finding has not been tied to Friday’s illness in any way, and nothing in the current reporting connects the two.
For now, the scope of Friday’s scare is limited to what fire officials have confirmed: seven children taken for medical evaluation, one who declined care, and a hazmat response triggered by uncertainty over what made them sick. Hoodline will update this story if New York City Public Schools or fire officials release additional information.
