SHELTON, Wash. — The family of a 6-year-old kindergarten student is outraged they were not informed their child may have handled a hypodermic needle he found outside of his school.
The incident happened Tuesday at Southside Elementary. The child’s grandmother, Michele Schneider, said he picked up a hypodermic needle in a flower bed by the flag pole. However, Schneider said what is really concerning is that the family did not find out about the situation until the next day.
Schneider also said they only found out about it because her daughter, the child’s mother who works at the school, overheard a conversation about the incident between a teacher and the principal.
“EMTs were not called in to make sure these children hadn’t been poked,” Schneider said. “The children were not asked to wash hands or sanitize. It’s wrong. My daughter should have been notified right away, and when she found out the next day, she took him to the emergency room.”
The boy will undergo testing and monitoring during the next year to make sure he is not infected.
KIRO 7 spoke with the principal. She said the school has occasionally had issues with needles being left on campus. However, she said her initial understanding of what happened is that the 6-year-old simply pointed out the needle, did not pick it up, and no children were ever in danger. A janitor was called in deal with it properly.
The principal said she found out on Wednesday there may have been more to the story. She said while she was discussing the matter with the teacher, the 6-year-old’s mother overheard the conversation. The principal said there is now a full investigation into how many students may have come in contact with the needle.
Schneider called the explanation from the school “bogus” and said “It’s like this principal is trying to cover things up.”
On Wednesday night, a letter went home to parents:
“Yesterday, a syringe with needle was found in the flower bed of the flag pole. The custodian was informed to remove it and administration and law enforcement were informed. The school video tapes reveal that people likely to be involved with use of the syringe were on campus around 2 a.m. on Tuesday morning. It is part of the school maintenance routine to examine the grounds for inappropriate materials on a daily basis. This event served as a reminder to tell our students about the need to report to an adult if they should find a syringe or needle and to never touch or pick it up. Staff members are to report it to administration that in turn will investigate and report the incident to law enforcement. Law enforcement has made a commitment to include Southside again in their regular rounds.”
Cox Media Group
