Hightstown High School is a brick and steel structure with an enrollment of 1,455, Grades 9-12, and 75 staff personnel.  Hightstown High School is a four-year comprehensive public high school that serves students in ninth through twelfth grades from three communities in Mercer County and Monmouth County,  It is part of the East Windsor Regional School District. Students come from East Windsor Township and Hightstown Borough, both in Mercer County. Students from Roosevelt Borough (a community of 933 residents in Monmouth County) attend the district’s high schools as part of a sending/receiving relationship.

1.1.2.1 Location

The high school is located on Leshin Lane in Hightstown, Mercer County, NJ, approximately 20 miles south of New Brunswick, NJ.

1.1.2.2 Description of Threat

On 01/17/14 at approximately 8:45 AM, a science teacher at the high school opened a fume hood in the science lab.  In the fume hood was a mixture of hydrochloric acid and zinc metal which had generated zinc chloride fumes (see attached MSD sheet in the Sit. Ref. Metals section). The fume hood was opened without the exhaust being turned on which released the fumes into the room where one teacher inhaled the fumes. Three teachers were exposed to the fumes and were taken to the hospital due to dizziness. A fourth teacher fell and hit her head during evacuation; she was also taken to the hospital.

An evacuation of the school was initiated at approx. 9:00 AM and the building was deemed cleared by 9:30 AM.  Students were loaded onto buses and transported home. The school was locked-down until the start of school next Tuesday.

Hightstown Fire Chief (Chief Scott Jenkins), Hightstown Police, NJ DEP (Patrick DiGangi), Local HazMat team, West Windsor Township Health Department Official (Douglas Davidson), US EPA (Eric Daly) and Channel 6 News (Phila.) were on the scene. PARS Environmental Inc. was contracted to remediate the lab.