LAKE LOS ANGELES : Tests Urged for Students Poked With Needles

Twenty-one middle school students who were poked with a needle brought to campus by a classmate should be tested for hepatitis, school officials have recommended.

In what Principal Greg Gerard called a bizarre incident, a student took blood test needles belonging to her diabetic grandmother to Challenger Middle School last week.

Some students were poked with the needles, some several times either by choice or maliciously, officials said. The student who brought the needles to school handed them to a classmate, who then poked other students with them, officials said.

“Some kids were being poked, some were saying, ‘Poke me again,’ ” said Gerard. At least two students at the 675-student school, which serves grades six through eight, may be expelled as a result of the incident. Gerard said two students were suspended and face an expulsion hearing March 17.

Gerard doubts that the students realized the danger involved. “I don’t think they saw it is being anything serious or malicious. A typical kid thing, perhaps. I don’t think there was any intent to create a health problem.”