It’s a regular media circus up at the top of 13th and Clifton streets NW (one block north of U Street proper, still not quite in Columbia Heights) where this DCist lives. Traffic has been blocked off in four directions and twenty-some fire trucks, ambulances, police cruisers and less-familiar official vehicles have been posted throughout the neighborhood because, as the Post reports:
School authorities in Washington, D.C., today closed the city’s Cardozo Senior High School for the rest of this week after mercury was found in the building.
D.C. Schools Superintendent Clifford Janey announced the closure following an investigation by emergency services officials. He said there was no mercury kept at the school and that authorities suspect the potentially hazardous liquid was brought in by a prankster.
It’s so funny we forgot to laugh. And this isn’t the first time hazardous chemicals have forced the closure of an area high school. And then there are those hazardous felines that can close D.C. schools as well.
As you can see from this DCist photo, things look fairly calm. We haven’t seen any hazmat suits, it sounds like no one got hurt, the kids get a four-and-a-half day weekend, and local news directors got some live coverage to break up the afternoon monotony. Oh wait, there’s snow coming!
