Miyoshi McMillan fired after letting students re-use needles in a blood experiment

BEWD · October 31, 2013, 2:09am

A North Carolina biology teacher was fired after letting students re-use needles in a blood experiment.

WRAL reports that on Oct. 24, biology teacher Miyoshi McMillan, who taught an honors version of the class at Overhills High School, conducted an experiment where students could check their blood type after pricking their fingers with a needle – or lancet – drawing blood. Students were then told to rub down the needle with alcohol before letting fellow classmates re-use them.

Students who chose not to do the blood test experiment were given an alternate assignment to write a five-page paper, according to the Fayetteville Observer. One concerned student instead left class to call her parents, who immediately alerted the assistant principals.

“They were, like, ‘Stop the lab! Stop the lab!’” McMillan said.

The teacher was fired by the end of the day, but told WTVD that she was set up to fail.

“I believe it’s really been blown up and it’s been a character strike against me,” McMillan told the station.

McMillan, who had been working as a teacher since 2009, was a lateral-entry teacher at the time of her firing, according to Patricia Harmon-Lewis, spokeswoman for Harnett County schools.

Lateral-entry teachers have an expertise in the field they teach, in this case biology, but must still obtain a North Carolina teacher’s license. She was a first-year teacher at Overhills High School.

“The staff should know not to do those things in classes,” Harmon-Lewis said. “That is why she is no longer employed with Harnett County schools.”

McMillan said she believes that if she was not supposed to use the blood testing kit, then it should not have been in the classroom.

“From my understanding, I thought, 'Well, it’s OK to use [a lancet],” McMillan said. “It’s there, if it was not OK to use, then I think it should have been taken out during the summer.”

A letter from the school was sent home to parents suggesting that all 16 students who participated in the experiment get their own blood tested by a doctor to make sure it wasn’t affected.

“The kids did not get a straight needle put into them,” McMillan said. “I really believe that the children will be fine.”

Now that she has been fired, the ex-teacher said she has enrolled in a Ph.D. program and will be just fine.

“It’s OK. The best is yet to come for me,” she said.

source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/30/miyoshi-mcmillan-fired_n_4176997.html

[details=Spoiler]

wtf a black woman named Miyoshi?[/details]

The best is yet to come? Yeah, if the best means her never being allowed to teach ever again.

crucades · October 31, 2013, 2:15am

meh

BEWD this one is below your standards, I thought at least the spoiler tag was gonna reveal she is a vampire or something

Vynce · October 31, 2013, 2:16am

Whoaooaaa mrsa mrsa me.

BEWD · October 31, 2013, 2:19am

You see those eyes? Bitch looks like she’s practicing The Craft or some shit.

crucades · October 31, 2013, 2:26am

Either that or the PCP is wearing off. I dont get what the big deal is, its like nobody tried using a buddies insulin monitor at home.

Maybe she was right and the school were trying to fire her lol.

NickRocks · October 31, 2013, 3:09am

Nasty ol bitch

angelpalm · October 31, 2013, 3:18am

Crucades think catching aids is whats hood. Probably why his mom looks like Precious.

Wasted · October 31, 2013, 8:33am

I only saw this because McMillan is my family name.

I can’t make any racial jokes here, I’m white.

thurst · October 31, 2013, 8:38am

cleaning a needle with alcohol does in fact sterilize it, i don’t see the problem with what she did.

Azure · October 31, 2013, 8:42am

Pins.

Those are pins - not hypodermics.

Learn to connotate properly, American media.

Fuck’s sake…

Missing_Person · October 31, 2013, 8:44am

I was expecting the spoiler to be some crazy Japanese woman.

Yet somehow I’m not disappointed.

Wasted · October 31, 2013, 8:46am

Lancet manufacturers advise buyers not to share lancets under any circumstances.

The issue is not whether the needles would have been sterilized (you can’t guarantee), it’s that she trusted dumbfuck teenagers to clean off a needle and let it enter someone else’s body.

Doctors use disposable lancets for a reason. As a teacher she has a duty of care to her students.

Pretty much end of story. You don’t share any needles, full stop.

ThePurpleBunny · October 31, 2013, 8:52am

If I had a choice between using a needle on myself or writing a 5-page paper I would holy shit this Miyoshi is a black woman?

RagingDemonStorm · October 31, 2013, 8:59am

Miyoshi? Fuck it. I’d ride her.

Spoiler

Then jump off that bitch to clear a gap

Azure · October 31, 2013, 9:03am

Nobody is saying she was right or smart, much less responsible.

But a reusing something that causes a puncture wound is dratically different than reusing something that sucks blood into itself/shoots something into the bloodstream, whilst providing a sealed environment for said blood to reside.

Einlanzer · October 31, 2013, 9:23am

miyoshi, eh? interested.
biology teacher, eh? interested.
(looks at pic). lol nevermind, damn.

Wasted · October 31, 2013, 9:26am

Irrelevant. Sharing a lancet goes against manufacturers instructions and she exposed her students to potential transmission of disease. Reusing a lancet is obviously accepted, sharing is not.

Teenagers are exactly the type of people who would deliberately not clean the lancet. They cannot be trusted. Students are meant to trust the teacher, not the reverse.

Regardless of how much you want to armchair doctor the situation, she had a legal obligation to expose students to the least risk possible.

J-ride · October 31, 2013, 9:50am

Not only that, but lancets are cheap as hell. You can buy a 100 lancets for 10 bucks, there is no reason risking giving a blood borne infection from something that is so easy to acquire.

Wasted · October 31, 2013, 11:26am

Exactly. My grandparents never let me get my blood sugar taken with their big lancet pens. Always pricked us with a disposable.

thurst · October 31, 2013, 11:56am

lancets are those things diabetics use to check their blood, correct? if so, is it even possible to “Wipe it down”? based on the vagueness of the article, i’m siding with the chick with the phd candidate over the hysterical school board officials.