Needle at school worries families

Bay Area child pricks 14 classmates, creating ‘potential health risk.’

FREMONT, Calif. — A San Francisco Bay Area school district advised the families of 14 elementary school students to take their children to doctors after another student pricked them with a needle, a school district official said Thursday.

The student at Cabrillo Elementary School discovered a needle, the type used by diabetics to test their blood, in front of the school on May 26. He brought it onto campus and pricked other students, creating a “potential health risk,” Fremont Unified School District spokesman Brian Killgore said.

“We understand this incident has caused stress and anxiety for the families involved and we will continue to support them however we can,” Killgore said in a statement.

School officials disciplined the student who found the needle, though Killgore said he could not comment on the specific punishment that was handed down.

“I’m stressed, you know,” Bud Lofton, whose grandson, 8-year-old Bryan Bullock, was pricked, told KGO-TV. “I’m just thinking, ‘What if something happens to him?’ And that’s really scary because he’s a healthy little boy.”

Bryan, who was interviewed next to his grandfather, said the student asked him whether he liked stamps and told him to stick out his hand before poking him with a needle.

Lofton said he took his grandson for a blood test to check for HIV and hepatitis. They were awaiting results.