Cops: Charges possible as prank sends six from Naperville North to hospital

One Naperville North High School student is expected to be charged in juvenile court and two others face consequences set by a juvenile officer after an apparent prank involving pepper spray Thursday morning at the school sent four students and two adults to Edward Hospital, authorities said.

Police said it appears the students discharged a commercially available pepper spray on a key chain before school began.

One boy is expected to be charged in juvenile court Thursday or Friday with disorderly conduct and battery, Naperville police Cmdr. Lou Cammiso said. Another boy and a girl will face penalties enforced by a Naperville juvenile officer because their role in the prank was not as serious and they have no history of previous offenses, Cammiso said.

All six people who were treated for "asthma-like symptoms" were released by late Thursday morning, hospital officials said.

Naperville North Principal Stephanie Posey said students and staff members reported the symptoms about 7:10 a.m. in a small common area. The school resource officer called the fire department at 7:25 a.m., Bureau Chief George Hyland said, but no one pulled the fire alarm to evacuate the school.

That was key, Hyland said, because evacuating the building could have led more people into the common area near the entrance where the pepper spray had been released.

Other than the six people taken to Edward Hospital, nine others complained of mild respiratory problems and eye irritation, Hyland said, but they refused treatment when their symptoms cleared up with fresh air.

Firefighters at the scene checked the common area, ventilated it and deemed the building safe. While the common area was closed for a time, it reopened around 9 a.m. and the school went back to operating normally, Posey said.