Officials: Girl stabbed 40 students with needle

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SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - Health officials in Puerto Rico say a middle school student has stabbed at least 40 classmates with a hypodermic needle. All are being tested for possible diseases and are being given preventive medicine.

Health Department spokeswoman Margarita Casalduc says the attack occurred Tuesday at a school in the southern coastal town of Arroyo. She says she does not know if the syringe contained anything or was contaminated.

Education Secretary Jesus Rivera Sanchez said in a statement that the female suspect has been suspended.

Officials said counselors were meeting Thursday with the parents of the stabbed students.

[amerilatino]

This is insane. When I was a middle-school student in Puerto Rico something like this was unheard of, as were gang warfare, rampant drug use and carjackings. Back then you could fall asleep on a bench in a town square at 2:00am with no concerns. Us kids would hitchhike from the beach or a school dance on a Saturday night without worrying about a thing except our parents getting on us when we got home. As I saw things go bad on the island over the years I wondered where all the decadence came from; the drugs, the government corruption, the youth crime and the breakdown of the values taught to us by our extended families, which were always a big thing in P.R. when I grew up. Then I came back to the 'states and rediscovered the ghetto culture, the glorification of might-makes-right in the media, the racial tension, pandering politics and the disjointed American family, and I knew EXACTLY where it had all come from. Unfortunately, EVERY BIT of day-to-day life in P.R. today is influenced by the most self-serving U.S. money interests, 'legal' and otherwise, and there is no antidote. Mexico has the same problem, only worse. My daughter teaches in the Dallas-Fort Worth area and she tells me that the immigrant kids are the best behaved and easiest to teach, because they don't DARE disrespect the teacher for fear of having to answer to their parents, yet many U.S. kids those who have become 'Americanized' regularly disrupt the class and challenge her, 2 have actually struck her in anger, and many of their parents come to school with a contentious attitude when summoned over a discipline or academic problem.

Many people don't realise just how powerful U.S. influence is on it's neighbors, youth and their future, but then again, most people here don't care one way or another.

[jackp32]

OUCH! THAT HURT! One would think that one of the kids "stuck" early on would have bopped the "sticker" in the side of the head thus stopping the "sticker" early on.

[Lerianis4]

Stabbed with a needle? Why in the hell was this girl doing this?

Mental evaluation, at least, for this girl to find out why she was doing this.

[tsigili]

Hopefully the girl has also been arrested and jailed in juvenile detention, for her actions.

[konr22]

Does puerto rico have universal healthcare?

[amerilatino]

taxedmore-The reason folks in Puerto Rico pay no federal income tax is that the island has no representation in Congress or presidential vote, as stated by the "no representation, no taxation" clause of the Puerto Rican Federal Relations Act enacted by Congress in 1950, which also holds all residents of Puerto Rico subject to military participation through Selective Service and subject all maritime trade going to island ports to the Cabotage Law, which restricts all ships going there to U.S. registry and places a de-facto federal tollgate tax on all goods and materials entering the island. Furthermore, all residents deriving income directly from interstate commerce do indeed have to pay federal taxes on said income. The per-capita income in Puerto Rico is considerably below that of Mississippi, so much so that under current Federal income tax laws, roughly 70 percent of all income-deriving residents would be eligible to pay NO income tax as a state, while being able to benefit from twice the government assistance they do now. Learn something about a subject before blurting about it, it portrays you in a better light.

[credibility2]

This is a very disturbed person that needs to be put in a straight jacket in a mental institution. She's doing this sort of stuff already at her young age and she's only in middle school? What type of parents does she have that obviously haven't raised the kid properly.

[Zann-Zel]

How did she get up to 40 before she got caught?

[rf35]

Better than a knife. Unless the needle was contaminated with an incurable, usually terminal disease. Then it's the same.

[addict42]

Oh kids today and their antics too hilarious!

[nycspg]

Regardless of anything in the syringe, she should be charged.

[kiljare]

She's in middle school, what are you going to charge a 9 or 10 year old with?