More than a dozen elementary school students in the Northern California city of Fremont had to be tested for HIV and hepatitis after being poked with a needle that a fellow student brought onto campus.
The needle prick was delivered by a diabetic lancet, and the offending student was able to poke 14 kids before a school employee observed a foreign object and confiscated the lancet. The boy was hauled off to the principal’s office.
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The stabbing student promised classmates some kind of treat, in one case asking a student if he “liked stamps,” then telling the boy to stick out his arm look away. At that point the boy was poked.
Bryan Bullock, 8, said he was walking on campus when another student stopped him. “I thought I was going to get very sick and die slowly.”
“He said, ‘Do you like stamps,’ and I said, ‘Yeah.’ He said, ‘Stick out your arm and look away,’ and I did, and I felt something poke me,” he said.
The principal asked the student if he stuck anyone, and he said no on May 26. It wasn’t until the following week that parents started reporting their children had been stuck by the needle.
“Being in constant communications with those families and also with the department of public health, we believe we have the situation contained,” said Brian Kilgore, a district official.
He says the student who stuck the others has been disciplined.