By Alyssa Guzman For Dailymail.Com and Associated Press

Published: 16:03 EDT, 17 June 2022 | Updated: 17:22 EDT, 17 June 2022

School district officials in Alaska investigating how students at a summer child-care program were served floor sealant instead of milk say the two products were not on the same pallet as first believed.

A number of agencies are involved in the ongoing investigation into Tuesday's incident at a summer program at a Juneau elementary school in which officials say 12 students and two adults drank up to 3 ounces of floor sealant that 'resembled milk' around 8.45am. 

Juneau School District chief of staff Kristin Bartlett said by email Friday that as the investigation has progressed, school officials 'have been able to get clarification on some of the details of what happened.'

The district in a statement late Thursday said it now understands that in the spring of 2021, a pallet of floor sealant was mistakenly delivered to a district food commodity warehouse at the same time as four pallets of shelf stable milk. The warehouse is intended for food items only.

Superintendent Bridget Weiss said the sealant is a 'milky, white substance' that is stored in a large plastic bag inside a cardboard box, which is similar to how their milk is stored. 

 Glacier Valley Elementary School students and teachers drank sealant after kitchen staff confused it for shelf stable milk 

'The pallet of floor sealant remained untouched in storage with other food products until this week,' when the district's food service contractor 'ran short on milk and sent staff to retrieve shelf stable milk,' the statement said.

On Tuesday, three boxes of floor sealant were picked up from the warehouse by the contractor, with one delivered to the summer program, the statement said. The others were delivered to Harborview Elementary School and Mendenhall River Community School and remained unopened, according to the statement.

Bartlett said the boxes 'were marked with a label that said Seal 341.'

According to the district statement, a worker with the contractor 'took the box of floor sealant and poured its contents into cups to be served at breakfast.' Shortly after breakfast, students 'complained of the "milk" tasting bad' and was burning their mouths and throats, and it was 'quickly discovered' that what was served was a 'slightly scented liquid floor sealant resembling milk.'

'Staff immediately directed students to stop consuming the substance and removed it,' the statement said.

Poison control was contacted for instructions, but the district said a delay in parental notification was 'longer than it should have been' and caused families to learn of the incident from other sources.

The children complained the substance burned their throats and staff discovered they had consumed Seal 341 (right), which was wrongly stored in a food storage warehouse, the school said in a statement (left) 

Some students were taken by parents for medical treatment, the statement said. As of Wednesday evening, the students 'are recovering, and some are fully recovered,' it said.

The district said it is examining its protocols for emergency communications. It said the warehouse was inspected and now contains only food items. The child-care program remains open.

Inspectors with the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation are also conducting a more thorough investigation, the statement said.

The comments below have not been moderated.

The views expressed in the contents above are those of our users and do not necessarily reflect the views of MailOnline.

By posting your comment you agree to our house rules.

Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline?

Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual.

Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline?

Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual

We will automatically post your comment and a link to the news story to your Facebook timeline at the same time it is posted on MailOnline. To do this we will link your MailOnline account with your Facebook account. We’ll ask you to confirm this for your first post to Facebook.

You can choose on each post whether you would like it to be posted to Facebook. Your details from Facebook will be used to provide you with tailored content, marketing and ads in line with our Privacy Policy.

Published by Associated Newspapers Ltd

Part of the Daily Mail, The Mail on Sunday & Metro Media Group