An Alaska elementary school accidentally served a dozen students floor sealant instead of milk for breakfast on Tuesday.
As reported by NBC News, the 12 students were given the "milk" as part of the school's RALLY summer care program, which serves children in Juneau aged five to 12 years old.
However, a statement from the Juneau School District states that the children of Sitʼ Eeti Shaanáx̱ Glacier Valley Elementary School were actually given floor sealant to drink.
The statement, which was shared on Wednesday, revealed that the breakfasts were organized by an outside company, NANA Management Services. But shortly after 8:45AM, the children started to complain that the milk not only tasted bad, but that it was also burning their throats and mouths.
School workers and NANA Management Services staff "immediately followed up by smelling/tasting the milk and looking at the container/label," and soon discovered that the "milk" was "actually a floor sealant" that resembled milk.
"Staff immediately directed students to stop consuming the substance and removed it," the school district's statement added. The students' parents were also informed and poison control was contacted.
The statement adds that one of the children sought medical treatment and two others were collected from the school and were also possibly taken to receive medical advice.
The condition of all 12 students is not known.
The remaining sealant was also removed from the school and placed in hazardous storage.
The school's superintendent, Bridget Weiss, has since revealed that the Juneau Police Department is now leading an investigation into the incident in order to the bottom of what happened.
It has also been reported that both the school's milk and the sealant were stored in large pouches and were being kept off-site at a separate facility.
WCAX now reports that the school district says the sealant was mistakenly delivered to a food commodity warehouse back in the spring of 2021.
After going untouched since then, staff accidentally retrieved the sealant when looking for shelf-stable milk.
Per CNN, NANA Management Services released a separate statement on Thursday, in which it stated that company officials are "en route to Juneau now".
"We are supporting the full investigation, looking at every contributing factor to determine exactly what happened. This process is key to identifying potential safety measures and putting those safety measures to work," the company's statement added.
