Needles Found on East Texas Preschool Playground

HALLSVILLE — A Hallsville ISD family and the district are at odds about whether a 4-year-old boy was stabbed by a needle he found on the district�s Pre-K playground. That’s according to KETK and the Longview News-Journal. �What has upset me the most is the fact that they found two syringes and needles on the playground on the same day,� said Michael Kelly, who rushed his son Tyler to the emergency room when he saw what looked like a puncture wound on the boy�s hand. �Was there some kid that found it before my son and played with it and left it there?� The district agrees that the boy found two syringes Friday at Hallsville Little Cats Pre-K campus playground. One syringe was capped, and the other was not. No further action was taken because the child was not punctured, district officials said.

�Administrators notified the Hallsville ISD police department as well as a school nurse who arrived on campus to take custody of the syringes. The nurse also inspected the child�s hands and arms and did not find any puncture wounds. As a precaution, parents were notified,� district spokeswoman Carol Greer wrote in an email Tuesday. Kelly, who said he and his wife spent Monday trying to talk to the district about the incident, said a doctor at a Longview hospital disagreed with the school nurse and identified a wound on the boy�s hand as a needle puncture wound. �The doctor observed it, so then they start making the phone calls that they needed to make with infectious control and disease doctors,� Kelly said. He said the doctors drew blood from the child and did tests that came back negative, but more tests will need to be done in six weeks.

Kelly said when district officials called him they said his son �did the right thing� by picking up the needle and bringing it to teachers. Greer said it is unknown what type of needle it was because both syringes were taken to Good Shepherd Medical Center at the request of the hospital. The playground was checked thoroughly for additional needles, and other playgrounds are being inspected, she said.

Tara Powdrill, marketing and public relations specialist with Good Shepherd Medical Center, declined to comment on the incident or describe the needles that were found. �Due to patient confidentiality reasons, we cannot discuss any specifics at this time,� she said.