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Bee Swarm Stings Middle School Students

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SAGINAW (CBSDFW.COM) - Twenty-three middle school students at Highland Middle School in Saginaw were treated for multiple bee stings after someone disturbed a hive during PE class. School officials say the hive was located in an irrigation valve box.

"Every kid was screaming trying to get every of those bees off their backs," sixth grader Isaac Armendariz told CBS 11 News. He says coaches tried to calm the students, but it was tough with aggressive bees. "I was just running and someone came by with the bees by their side and they just got me."

He showed CBS 11 News where he was stung. "Right here on the back of my neck and on my leg down here."

He was one of 21 boys stung, along with two girls. Most were treated in the school, but four had to go by ambulance to Cook Children's, one of them with respiratory issues. All are currently listed as stable.

Jadon Harvey was in the school as the stung children started pouring in get help from school nurses, then police, then paramedics. "One kid was stung and the other one wasn't, but he had a bag of ice in his hand covering his wounds," according to Jadon, whose sister was part of the ill-fated PE class. "My sister is okay. She wasn't stung. A bee landed on her but she shrugged it off."

The Eagle Mountain-Saginaw ISD says a school district exterminator had to euthanize the bees; they were too upset for him safely remove the hive. MedStar says it would take tests to determine if they were Africanized bees. Heath Stone will only call them 'aggressive.' "How they were disturbed, we don't know if they ran across the lid or kicked but obviously the bees came out pretty rapidly."

Stone also tells CBS 11 News some students were stung up to 12-times, but those stung the most seem to have shown the least symptoms of having allergic reactions. Isaac's Dad says he'll get Benadryl tonight and be back here at school tomorrow.

(©2014 CBS Local Media, a division of CBS Radio Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

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