WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — On Wednesday, a North Carolina school district announced they’d be recalling Chromebooks after one began smoldering inside an elementary school classroom.
Officials with Winston Salem/Forsyth County Schools held a news conference saying Lewisville Elementary School, which is just outside Winston Salem, was evacuated after a 2015 model Chromebook overheated, and smoke started to pour out.
"Right now, we're just very grateful that our children were safe and that our faculty are safe," said principal Angie Choplin.
Officials said they’ll be sending the burned laptop back to the manufacturer for testing and plan to have all others within the school district checked for safety.
"The device itself was pretty evident that it came from the battery when you look at the unit and where the heat came from it was definitely a battery issue."
NBC Charlotte has learned this isn’t the first time a Chromebook has sparked concern. In 2017, a Massachusetts school district recalled nearly 1,200 Chromebooks after officials say smoke began pouring out of a laptop there.
The small laptops are affordable and a popular choice among school districts for their compatibility with the Google Education Suite of tools, in addition to Gmail and Google Docs.
In fact, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools said on any given day roughly 125,000 CMS students are using Chromebooks.
"The number of Chromebooks we have deployed is actually the largest deployment of Chromebooks on the planet. There is no single entity that has more Chromebooks than CMS," said Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools Chief Technology Officer, George Linares, during a presentation at Tuesday’s board of education meeting.
In a statement, CMS said, "the district does everything possible to ensure the safety of student equipment." However, officials did not indicate if they would be taking any action.