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Carbon Monoxide Scare Evacuates FWISD Elementary School

FORT WORTH (CBSDFW.COM) - School officials evacuated Diamond Hill Elementary School after a teacher became ill with signs of carbon monoxide poisoning.

It still isn't clear what sent multiple teachers to the hospital, but for now the school district is satisfied that dangerous gases are not to blame.

The scare started when the district says an adult staff member felt sick earlier Friday and went to see a doctor. The doctor said the patient was showing signs of carbon monoxide exposure.

Maria Gonzalez lives close to her daughter's elementary school, so when she saw emergency vehicles headed that way, she ran to make sure her child was safe.

"First I couldn't find her, and I was just like, where's she at, and since her teacher was the one that got sent to the hospital, they had her in the library and the intercoms weren't working, or I don't know what was going on, but I had to go and grab her," Gonzalez said.

As a precaution, the district evacuated the school. Four adult staff members were taken to the hospital complaining of nausea, but no children were taken by ambulance.

The fire department found no evidence of any gas inside the building. Outside the building, construction workers were using a gasoline powered cutting tool. It isn't clear if fumes from that tool could have made anyone sick, but the workers were ordered to stop using the tool for the day.

Firefighters cleared the school for students to go back inside, and classes continued for the rest of the day, but several parents say they're upset they had to find out about the scare from sources other than the school.

"We need to know exactly what's going on. These are our kids. We need to know exactly what's going on. They need to have much more better communication," said Sanjuanita Montoya whose grandson goes to Diamond Hill.

Fort Worth ISD spokesperson Clint Bond says the children were never in any danger, and the situation was resolved in about an hour and a half, so no alert was necessary, but the principal did send home a letter with students explaining what happened.

"We're going to make sure that the school is safe. Over the weekend, we're going to have air monitors in the school, so that we can check and make sure there's nothing in there, and the air monitoring will continue on Monday morning and into the day Monday," Bond said.

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