ORLANDO, Fla. – Orange County Public Schools and the Department of Children and Families are investigating after several students were pricked with lancets this week.
A district spokesperson said it happened after students found a bag of lancets on the way to Ridgewood Park Elementary School on Pioneer Road.
Students pricked other students with the lancets, which are needles used for diabetic patients. School leaders are interviewing students to find out who is responsible and said that all students involved will be disciplined, according to officials.
"It was used because he went around clicking it at other kids. My son wasn't the only one," said Phyllis Tyson. "A needle is a needle. If it can draw blood, it can carry on and pass viruses. People need to ask their child, 'Were you one of the ones that were struck?'"
It's not clear if the lancets were used when the students found them on the street. Also, school leaders do not know if the same lancet was used to prick more than one student.
The school said at least three students were pricked, but more could have been injured.
When Maggie St. Jean's son, Joshua, was pricked on his forearm she immediately took her son to the hospital and then pulled him out of school.
"I'm more scared than angry. I don't know what's going to come, what the results will be," said St. Jean, who is waiting for the results of medical tests to show if Joshua was infected with anything from the puncture wound.
An automated message from the school's principal went out to parents saying, "We had an incident on campus where students brought some medical items to school called lancets."
Although the message explained the basic details of what happened, it left many parents with lingering questions.
"The whole scare of it is you just don't know where those needles came from," said Carline Charles, who plans to ask her kids if they were pricked too.
Tyson wants the child who brought the lancets to the school and initiated the pricking to face charges.
"An 11-year-old knows better," said Tyson. "How would you feel if that was your child?"
Tyson said her child knew of at least three lancets at the school, but the school district does not know if students have any more. As the school investigates, worried parents wonder why the school had no idea what was going on until a student told a teacher he had been pricked.
The school district continues to investigate this incident.