Used Playground Condom Leaves 8-Year-Old Student At Risk for STDs

Used Condom (Michael Coghlan / Flickr / CC)
Michael Coghlan / Flickr / CC

The used condom an 8-year-old boy from Colorado found on his school playground may have infected him with any of many sexually transmitted diseases after the young boy mistook it for a balloon and placed his mouth on the object.

“He’s at risk for HIV, Hepatitis C, Herpes, Gonorrhea, Chlamydia,” the boy’s mother Alicia told 7 News.

A Fort Collins, Colorado teacher spotted the child trying to blow up the “balloon.” She took it out of the child’s mouth, had him wash his hands and realized it “looked like it had been used.”

Because the potentially diseased object was thrown out without being tested, it is unknown to what the little boy had been. He now faces blood tests over the next year. Some potential diseases could take that long to manifest in the child.

If he tests positive for something like HIV, “That would be a lifelong [process], millions of dollars in medical bills,” the boy’s mother Alicia told 7 News, via San Diego’s ABC News affiliate. “I mean, this is just an unbelievable tragedy.”

Bennett Elementary School’s Superintendent told 7 News that the school would like to install surveillance, but he would not admit fault. He rather deferred to the school’s liability insurance provider that Alicia says has denied her claim regarding the incident.

Follow Michelle Moons on Twitter @MichelleDiana

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