KNOX COUNTY, Tenn. (WATE) — Two Carter Middle School students are speaking out after 21 of their classmates were hospitalized with heat-related illnesses on Friday.

Knox County Schools Superintendent Jon Rysewyk said students were evacuated to the Carter High School football field after a bomb threat was written on a bathroom wall inside the middle school.

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The superintendent told 6 News students received water and shade, but students said that's not the whole story.

"The staff were trying their best with it, but the water and shade wasn't offered to everyone, and the shade wasn't offered to anyone," said Madison Thomson, a 8th grader.

"And I walked through the eighth grade, seventh grade and sixth grade hallway seeing a bunch of people passed out and getting like water," said Jaden Arroyo, a 7th grader.

On Friday, Arroyo and Thompson watched their classmates overheat.

"My friend, he had to go to the hospital because he like, couldn't really like walk or he had to be carried up the stairs," said Arroyo.

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"There was a girl in my class, she was dizzy, lightheaded, crying. She was panicking. And so I guess that caused her to overheat quicker. Cause with her crying for her heart to be faster, cause she was, like, hyperventilating," said Thompson.

Then they began to feel the effects.

"Actually, I was I was having like a little panic attack because I have asthma and I wanted to ask them for water. And they were like, 'no, just wait.' And I didn't get water at all until I went inside," said Arroyo.

"And I was starting to get dizzy and lightheaded, and I told the teacher and they said, 'we're working on it. Just go sit back down.' And when I asked for water, they said, 'we're like working on it,'" said Thompson.

They said some students texted their parents, then teachers began taking phones.

"They were just coming up to people and just snatching them out of their hands and holding them until they went inside," said Arroyo. "But in like, this crisis, I feel like they shouldn't be really worrying about our phones, but more on the students and how they are feeling."

On Tuesday, students will return to school. What happened on Friday will stay with them.

"The superintendent lied and it was just bad," said Arroyo.

"I would like to go back. But after Friday, I'm scared and nervous to know if everything would be the same. If the teachers are just going to put it aside and just continue like nothing ever happened and just like, continue on with daily life," said Thompson.

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Knox County Schools said the superintendent notified their safety department and asked for an after-action review to be conducted after speaking to 6 News on Friday.

"Our first thing in those situations is always to make sure that safety is handled first. Our second is always to make sure we're communicating because we understand, you know, parents want to know. So there was communication made by the school at the initial evacuation, due to the threat. And then there was, one when the all-clear was made," said Rysewyk. "In this case, I think they had a good protocol. But we also take everything as a learning opportunity to look back on it. Ask those questions."

The superintendent declined to discuss alternative places the students could have been moved to, including the high school, citing security concerns.

Katie Schaefer, a nurse and a Carter Middle School parent who was at the school on Friday, said she raced to help students when she arrived.

"I started with the most noticeable critical child and upon measurement her heart rate was 243," said Schaefer.

The Knox County Sheriff's Office says it is still investigating the threat. No arrests have been made yet.

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