| A student who drank a chemical from his high school lab on a dare was recovering in a hospital, but not before a scare. The student drank the unidentified chemical on a bet at the school, said Nancy Smith, a UMC supervisor. "We need to find out what it was from the toxicologist," Assistant Principal Ray Lascano said. "All of those materials belonged to one of the chemistry labs." The student was found last Wednesday in a school hallway, bleeding from the nose and mouth. The unidentified student, a junior at Odessa High School, was upgraded Monday from critical to satisfactory condition at University Medical Center in Lubbock. Lascano, who talked with the youth’s mother Monday afternoon, said swelling in his throat had receded enough for him to talk. The student was moved from the Lubbock hospital’s intensive-care unit to the pediatric unit, he said. Lascano said Ector County Independent School District officials were still investigating. |