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http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cg...GEHMGMN618.DTL

30 students to be tested after sharing lancets

Diana Walsh, Chronicle Staff Writer
Monday, November 20, 2006 03 16 PM

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(11-20) 15:16 PST REDWOOD CITY -- As many as 30 seventh-graders at a Redwood City middle school will be tested for hepatitis and HIV after their substitute science teacher allowed the students to share needle-like devices to prick themselves for blood.
The substitute teacher, who has been fired as a result of the incident, was giving a life-science lesson to five classes Thursday at Kennedy Middle School when he asked for volunteers to have their blood drawn using lancets -- which are similar to the small tools that diabetics use to test their blood.
Rather than giving each volunteer a new lancet to draw individual blood samples, the teacher, whose name was not released, permitted students to share them, according to Jan Christensen, superintendent of the Redwood City School District.
"Each student should have had their own one,'' Christensen said today. "I'm shocked and stunned that anyone would have thought this was appropriate protocol.''
A mother whose daughter participated in the class notified the school about the science experiment late Thursday. The school's vice principal and the substitute teacher spent Friday meeting with the classes and identifying the students who had blood drawn.
The school then notified county health officials and the principal began contacting parents whose children were involved in the experiment. School officials plan to meet this afternoon with parents from the five classes.
Chances that any of the children involved are infected with Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C or HIV are very slim, according to Doris Estremera, public information officer for the San Mateo County health department. In the past 15 years, the county has recorded seven cases of Hepaptitis B in children ages 12 to 14 and one Hepatitis C case each year in all age groups combined. In the last 26 years, only 12 children under age 14 have tested positive for HIV.
Christensen said the teacher, who has expressed deep remorse about what had happened, had worked in the school for the past six weeks as a long-term substitute for the regular teacher who is on maternity leave.
"He was very honest about it. He screwed up,'' said Warren Sedar, principal at Kennedy. "He's got kids himself and he felt bad about putting anybody at risk and worrying the parents. He made a really big mistake.''
The school has asked parents to either take their children to their pediatricians or to have their blood drawn at the county's mobile lab, which will be on campus all day Tuesday.
Sedar and Christensen said she they were shocked not only that the kids had shared lancets, but that they were drawing blood at all. The science lesson is designed to allow children to look at their cells under a microscope. Normally, students gather the cells by swabbing the inside of their cheeks and are not asked to draw blood.
"I am extremely upset because the safety of our students is our number-one concern,'' Christensen said.

[mkeds]

MOVE THIS, DOESNT HAVE ANYTHING TO DO WITH 3ers...


There is a section called off topic banter.

[Kit523]

wow, this is a very serious shocking news

I dont understand, how the F**K the teacher would let the students share the lancets

[Annette]

In before the move

But on topic of this post, that's absolutely abhorrent, that substitute teacher is a moron!

[Volume]

Originally Posted by Annette

In before the move

But on topic of this post, that's absolutely abhorrent, that substitute teacher is a moron!

I think she has it nailed!

[Brunotheboxer]

Brilliant

[Gearcraft]

Originally Posted by Brunotheboxer

Brilliant

i often quote that commercial. that line is so brilliant.

[Brunotheboxer]

Originally Posted by Gearcraft

i often quote that commercial. that line is so brilliant.

beers pretty good too.