Four teenage males entered McClure Junior High School without permission through the south doors around 9:00 p.m. on Aug. 12, and they proceeded to vandalize the interior by discharging a fire extinguisher.

The school rents out the basketball gym on Wednesday night, and the south door was propped open. The four teens entered to charge their cell phones at first. Two of them proceeded to explore further into the school, upon which point they removed a fire extinguisher from the wall and emptied it down the north stairwell and into the first floor hallway, the stair landing and the basement cafeteria, Principal Dan Chick said.

“I was so surprised,” Chick said. “I had no clue that that much stuff was in one fire extinguisher.”

When police arrived on the scene after a fire alarm was set off by the extinguisher powder, the basketball players renting the gym were detaining the two teens that had been charging their phones, Chick said. Upon an ultimatum from responding officers, the teens revealed the names of the other two teens that had discharged the fire extinguisher and fled the scene. All four were charged with trespassing, and one teen took full responsibility and agreed to pay the clean up cost of $5,279, Chick said.

“[The restoration company] came two nights in August and cleaned,” Chick said. “These two [men] were suited up in hazmat suits.”

Most of the recently cleaned cafeteria was coated in powder, Head Custodian Jim Wolf said. A fire extinguisher is a dry chemical release that disperses a large cloud of powder. There was a fog in the room from the floor to the ceiling and there were about eight or nine firemen on the scene, Wolf said.

“It happened a week before school,” Wolf said. “There was no way we could serve food in there.”

Police officers secured the building and took pictures of the scene, Wolf said. Responders tried not to touch anything because it was an active crime scene.

“It’s unfortunate that it happened,” Wolf said. “I wish it didn’t. I think it was an opportunity, and things got out of hand before they realized it.”