San Fernando Valley : Students Learn Scary Lesson in Health Class

A sixth-grade Glendale teacher trying to show her students what their blood looks like under a microscope inadvertently taught a frightening lesson in public health, forcing the children to be tested for HIV and hepatitis infection because they pricked their fingers with the same needle.

The students probably suffered no harm, health authorities said.

On June 8, instructor Chrissy Wynn, who teaches health and social studies at Mark Keppel Elementary School, directed 10 sixth-grade students to prick their fingers and place a drop of their blood on a slide, according to Glendale school officials.

Although some students used individual pins, Wynn apparently reused the same pin on several of them after cleansing it with alcohol, said a spokesman for the Glendale Unified School District.

School officials alerted health authorities after an alarmed parent called the next day, according to Principal Gordon Morse.

Wynn should have known better, Morse said, because she also teaches a drug abuse prevention program that includes material on the risk of sharing needles.

All 10 students underwent tests for HIV and hepatitis B and C, said Dr. Shirley Fannin, Los Angeles County director of disease control programs. Some tests on two students are pending, but the remainder proved negative, she said Thursday.

Swabbing the pin with alcohol would be a safeguard only if meticulously done, leaving not even a microscopic trace of blood on the pin, Fannin said.