ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, April 17, 1997 TAG: 9704170081
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-2 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: STUARTS DRAFT
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
Stuarts Draft High School students had done the experiment many times before, but this time something went wrong.
A science experiment went awry Wednesday morning, causing an explosion that injured 13 students at Stuarts Draft High School.
Vice Principal Fred Keeling said the students were cut by flying glass during a laboratory class about 9:15 a.m.
``It was an experiment that was done a hundred times before,'' Augusta County Sheriff's Deputy W.A. Koontz said. ``We determined right away that no foul play was involved.''
A beaker containing a mixture of oxygen and alcohol exploded when junior Mike Floyd ignited it, according to a student who spoke with Floyd and several injured students after the explosion.
``They were showing how oxygen mixed with different things,'' said the student, who asked not to be identified. ``When Mike was lighting it, it was supposed to shoot straight up [out the top of the beaker], but it didn't.''
The students were taken by rescue squads to Augusta Medical Center in Fishersville, where they were treated in the emergency room, hospital spokesman Wayne Davis said. All of the students were released by late Wednesday afternoon.
Keeling said there was no damage to the classroom or surrounding area, and there was no fire.
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