Dozens stung by wasps at Rhode Island school

By Michaela Stanelun, Globe Correspondent

What started out as a routine fire drill this morning at a middle school in Cranston, R.I., turned chaotic when 29 students and teachers were stung -- some more than once -- by yellow jacket wasps, school officials said.

Ray Votto, the chief operating officer for Cranston Public Schools, said the attack occurred around 10:45 a.m. at Western Hills Middle School.

"When kids exited towards the back of the school building near our portable classrooms, they walked into a field and may have disrupted a nest," Votto said by phone.

Twenty-five students were stung in total, with one taken to Hasbro Children's Hospital in Providence because the student has a history of allergies. Four teachers were also stung.

Schools Superintendent Peter Nero said all the students who were stung were taken home by their parents, and one teacher was also being sent home.

"We wanted to be cautious," Nero said, adding that some were stung more than once.