Sulfuric acid spill in classroom burns teacher, prompts evacuation at California school

A middle school teacher in Santa Barbara suffered extensive burns because of a sulfuric acid spill in a classroom Monday.

The incident happened at La Cumbre Junior High School just before 9 a.m. Amber Anderson, a spokeswoman for the Santa Barbara City Fire Department, told KEYT that a teacher suffered "quite extensive" burns on her body when sulfuric acid spilled.

According to the TV station, the teacher was treated at the scene and taken to Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital.

No students were in the classroom at the time of the spill, which occurred in one of the school's science labs, and no one else was injured, according to Noozhawk.com. It's currently unclear how the spill happened.

Students were evacuated from the school's main building so that a hazardous materials team could transport the acid and the cleanup materials through the hallways, Anderson told Noozhawk. Officials decided that students would remain on campus but gave parents the option to pick up their children, according to KEYT.

This story was originally published April 30, 2018 at 1:47 PM with the headline "Sulfuric acid spill in classroom burns teacher, prompts evacuation at California school."