MARIETTA - Four members of Walton High School's marching band program who were attending a camp at LaGrange College last week were treated at a local hospital for heat exhaustion, according to the hospital, but Walton's principal disputes that.

Patricia Rogers, a spokeswoman at West Georgia Medical Center in LaGrange, told the Journal that four students from east Cobb's Walton High School were treated in the hospital's emergency room.

"Their symptoms were related to the heat," Rogers said.

Three Walton students were admitted to the hospital's emergency room last Thursday, and the fourth was treated sometime after that, she said.

"They all pretty much had the same type of symptoms related to heat exhaustion, which was cramping and nausea. The students were brought into the emergency department and given fluids and cooling towels, and remained here until their body temperature lowered to what is considered normal and their fluid level was built back up," she said.

But Walton Principal Dr. Judy McNeill said through a district spokesman that only one student was treated for heat-related symptoms in LaGrange last week, and that student's parent took the student to the hospital as a precaution. McNeill was in LaGrange on Saturday for the band's final performance at the camp.

Doug Goodwin, a district spokesman, relayed McNeill's responses to inquires from the Journal.

"There were reports of three other students treated at the hospital for symptoms related to a virus, and a chaperone had the same virus, but it was not related in any way to heat, according to Dr. McNeill," Goodwin said.

But later Wednesday, Goodwin said in an e-mail that one student was transported to the hospital in LaGrange for heat-related symptoms; one student was taken by the student's parent to the hospital after practice, as a precaution; and one student was taken to the hospital in LaGrange for a sore back.

The temperature in LaGrange last Thursday was 101 degrees, according to Accuweather. Cobb County schools start a new year one week from today, on Aug. 5, the earliest start date in memory. Accuweather predicts a high temperature of 93 degrees on that day, with some rain showers.

There were 192 Walton students, and 30 chaperones at the weeklong band camp, Goodwin said, and the group returned to east Cobb last Saturday. The students at the band camp took water breaks every 20 minutes, as required, Goodwin said.

MDJ reporter Jon Gillooly contributed to this report.