Two Girls Cut by Glass Put on Park Pole : Lancaster: Children were hurt on jungle gym structure that had been tampered with in an apparent prank.

In an apparent prank that has outraged Lancaster parents and city officials, someone glued glass shards to a playground sliding pole, injuring two girls who later slid down it, authorities said Wednesday.

Paramedics were called to Lancaster City Park on Tuesday morning to treat the girls, ages 6 and 7, for cuts on their hands and inner thighs. The cuts were not serious, paramedics said, but an adult at the park was told the girls should see their family physicians for further treatment, such as tetanus shots.

On Wednesday, sheriff’s deputies were investigating and city officials said that anyone arrested in the case should be charged with assault with a deadly weapon.

“Why would a person want to do this, especially since you know that in a park setting it’s going to injure a child?” asked Lancaster Mayor Frank Roberts. “It’s just unconscionable . . . I think we’re going to have to set an example with something like this. I would hope it would not catch on.”

The pole is one of two attached to jungle gyms in the popular city park. Children can climb steps to an elevated platform, then leap onto the pole and slide down, firefighter-style.

City officials believe vandals either filled a soda bottle with glue and smashed it against the pole Monday night or glued the tiny shards directly to the play equipment.

On Tuesday morning, a Lancaster woman brought her 6-year-old daughter and two neighbor children to the playground. Shortly afterward, an off-duty California Highway Patrol dispatcher walking nearby heard the children crying, saw that they were injured and called for help, said Ken Garcia, a Los Angeles County Fire Dept. paramedic.

“They got real panicky when they noticed there was glass on the pole,” Garcia said, referring to the woman and children. “All this glass was stuck to the pole on both sides, so it looked like somebody had intentionally put it there.”

The names of the victims were withheld by firefighters and sheriff’s deputies because of their ages.

One of the paramedics on the scene found a broken bottle--possibly the source of the shards--under the platform next to the pole. If a child had stepped on the jagged bottle or slid down the pole at a different angle, the injuries could have been far more serious, Garcia said.

“My partner and I have kids, so it is frightening,” Garcia said. “We use those facilities as well.”

After the incident, park workers photographed the glued glass, then removed it from the pole with steel wool.

Lyle Norton, Lancaster’s director of parks, recreation and arts, said the incident was the first of its kind during his seven years with the city.

“The extent of the injuries isn’t the biggie to me,” Norton said. “It’s the fact that something like this could injure someone more severely.”

He said city park workers have been told to make their normal, daily check of park equipment more thorough. “We going to be looking more intensely for this type of (hazard),” Norton said.

On Wednesday afternoon, the playground was again filled with children. Some adults with them had already heard about what happened to the girls the previous day.

Most assumed the vandals were teen-agers or younger children.

“I’m upset,” said Steve Hurd of Lancaster, whose 5-year-old son, Steve Jr., loves to slide down the pole on which the girls were cut. “I think that’s a ridiculous way for kids to spend their time--gluing glass to a pole. That’s a new one on me.”

Don Jones of Rosamond, who had joined his wife and three children at the park during a lunch break, said he heard about the incident on his way to work.

“I didn’t realize it was this park,” he said. “We come here because it’s one of the nicer ones in Lancaster. It worries me that youth today don’t have the moral conscience to recognize that what they do in fun and games can have a grave impact on other kids.”

His wife, Shiela Jones added: “I think they should be punished, but it depends on how old they are. Kids do pranks and they don’t realize the repercussions. They don’t think about their actions.”

But Regina Godman, a Lancaster hair stylist who was visiting the park with her son Gage, 3, said the vandals should face serious criminal charges, not just a slap on the wrist. “I think they should get the maximum we could give them,” she said.

Like most parents, Michele Orsborn of Palmdale does not closely inspect playground equipment before allowing her 8-year-old daughter Elizabeth to use it. But in the wake of Tuesday’s incident, Orsborn said she may begin doing so.

“It’s sad in today’s environment that you have to start thinking about things like that,” she said. “Children aren’t safe anywhere, anymore.”