Pin Victims May Get Tests, Shots

Students wielding straight pins stuck more than 50 classmates at Mountain Home Junior High School last week.

The pranksters drew blood from some of the students and got the attention of public-health officials in Boise. The victims were being offered tests and shots to ward off infection.

“I don’t think the kids had any idea how serious it is,” Kathy Holley, director of the Central District Health Department, said Friday.

Because the students used the same pins on all the victims, there is a very remote chance they spread disease.

“Since you don’t know the blood status of all the children, this is the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) recommendation for what you do after a needle stick,” Holley said.

About six students, all seventhgraders, did the sticking between classes and at lunch time Thursday, Mountain Home Assistant Superintendent Jerril LeFevre said. All were suspended.

School officials were considering whether to make the pranksters’ parents pay the victims’ medical bills.