UXBRIDGE, MASS. (WHDH) - Standardized testing was put on hold at Whitin Intermediate School in Uxbridge after a student’s hands were burned by a malfunctioning school laptop Tuesday morning.
At around 9:30 a.m., a school-owned Chromebook being used by a sixth-grade student to take an English Language Arts MCAS test “malfunctioned” and began smoking, Uxbridge Public Schools Superintendent Michael Baldassarre said in a statement. The area that was burned was where the battery was located.
“Obviously, a lot of our kids have these laptops. The laptop that we’re talking about here is relatively new. It was purchased at the beginning of the year from a large, reputable company,” Baldassarre said at a press conference Tuesday afternoon.
The school building was evacuated and the student using the computer was taken to a hospital by his mother for treatment of burns on his hands, Baldassarre said. He has since been released from the hospital.
Baldassarre said the student’s hands were never on the Chromebook, so he isn’t bandaged up, but he is using ice packs.
Uxbridge Fire responded to clear and ventilate the school building before students and staff returned at around 10:45 a.m., Baldassarre said.
MCAS testing at the school has been put on hold until further notice, according to the district.
The school district and Department of Technology and Digital Learning are working with the laptop supplier to investigate the situation.
“We did reach out to the company and we did ask that they send a representative to the school to evaluate the laptop so that we can understand what caused this, and know what, if anything, we need to do to make sure that our kids are safe moving forward,” Baldassarre said at the conference.
This is a developing story; stay with 7NEWS on-air and online for the latest updates.
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