Three Douglas County High students were arrested Wednesday afternoon and charged with pepper spraying as many as 100 students Wednesday morning, officials said.
Around 10:15 a.m., students and teachers in the school's Banks building began complaining of itchy eyes and noses after a group of pranksters released the chemical into a hallway in the lower section of the building, school officials said in a statement released online.
"It was what we thought it was ... kids being kids," said Douglasville Police spokesman Capt. Greg Graff who earlier said police investigating the incident thought it was the result of a prank.
Firefighters cleared the area of the school where the pepper spray was released, he said. However, the school was not locked down.
Emergency medical technicians were on the scene just before 11 a.m. evaluating individuals impacted by the spray.
Police reviewed footage from school surveillance cameras to find the culprits.
Fire officials and school custodians set up fans to clean out the hallway where the spray was released, and students returned to class by 11 a.m., school officials said.
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