Eight teens stabbed with syringe at Plumpton High School
UPDATE: A schoolboy who allegedly jabbed eight pupils with a dirty syringe he found at a bus stop has been charged.
NSW
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A SCHOOLBOY who allegedly jabbed eight pupils with a dirty syringe he found at a bus stop has been charged.
The Plumpton High school boys were all allegedly stabbed with a hypodermic needle by a Year 9 student on Thursday morning.
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Some of the injured boys were pricked in their hands when the boy “high-fived’’ his friends armed with the syringe. Others were pricked in their thighs and buttocks.
Six children were taken to nearby medical centres to have blood taken for testing, with another two boys being taken to Mt Druitt Hospital.
One of the boys went to Mt Druitt Hospital with his mother.
“She’s just shocked,” a relative of the mother said.
Police arrested a 14-year-old at his Glendenning home on Thursday night and charged him with five counts of assault.
He will appear in court next month.
Student Troy Masters said victims were not worried at first when stabbed.
“He picked up a needle — like some drug needle — and then he’s come to school and (with) his own mates (started) giving them high-fives with the needle or something in his hand,” he said.
“He poked them and stabbed a few kids. They were just a bit upset and their parents came and grabbed them. They were like, ‘I’m a bit scared’ and went to the office.
“At the start, I don’t think they were very worried until he started saying he found the needle so they started (getting) worried. I don’t think they took much notice of it and he started stabbing people in the leg.”
A NSW Education Department spokesman said: “The school will be taking strong disciplinary action against this student.”
NSW Ambulance Acting Inspector Joe Ibrahim said the boys had been injured in the “upper thighs and upper limbs and on hands”.
He said there was a slight chance the eight could have contracted serious diseases, if the needle was contaminated.
“Worst case would be HIV and hepatitis,” Inspector Joe Ibrahim said.
“It’s concerning for the parents, it’s concerning for the teachers, it’s certainly concerning for the students,” he said.
He said the blood tests would not rule out if the students had contracted blood-borne diseases and would have to undergo further tests in three months to definitively rule that out.
“But the risk of (anything) actually coming up with (an infection) is low … but there is certainly a potential,’’ he said.
Police Acting Inspector Shane Rolls said all of the boys involved were aged around 14.
Hebersham mother Leanne Miller, whose son is in year 7 at Plumpton High, said she was surprised NSW Police had called the incident a “prank”.
“I don’t think that’s a prank — I think it’s an attack,” she said.
“I’ve just come out of the shops and seen the news crews and freaked out.
“The story I heard was a kid picked up (a needle) at a bus stop and just started pricking people in the bottom with it.”
