BOSTON -- A 15-year-old student was arrested Monday after allegedly spraying pepper spray in a Brighton middle school.

NewsCenter 5's Gail Huff reported that the Edison Middle School was evacuated on Monday after dozens of students complained of breathing problems. In all, 42 people were sent to the hospital.

"You could feel it, like, you could taste it," one student said.

One teacher and 41 others, including dozens of students, were treated and transported to four different hospitals in Boston.

"People breathed some of this in, and there was respiratory distress," said one emergency responder.

Students were allowed back into the school early Monday afternoon.

It is unclear why the teen brought the pepper spray to the school.

"He was probably just trying to show it off, maybe," student Yesenia Gonzalez said, adding she thought it was an accident. "He must have felt really bad."

The teen, whose name was not released, faces charges including unlawful possession of pepper spray, disturbing a school assembly and disturbing the peace. He will be arraigned in the Boston Juvenile Court. It is illegal to carry pepper spray without a permit in Massachusetts.