Truth or Rumor?

Here are some interesting tidbits of information, as reported by one of my students today:

• In one neighboring high school, 95% of the blood gathered at a recent school blood drive was unusable, because it tested positive for STD's.


• And in another school across town, about 75% of the blood from a similar drive was unusable because it tested positive for drugs.

I have no way to substantiate these two rumors, and we've all heard wild things like this circulating around the schools in the past. But it's interesting that two schools which are not even in the same district as the school where I heard the rumors, nor are they big sports rivals of any kind, were chosen as the subjects here. (There's always the chance that, if it's a rumor, the school names were chosen strictly at random.)

And if it is true, how would such information get leaked in the first place? It doesn't make the employees at the blood bank seem very professional if they're letting information fly around like this, and if it were really happening, you'd think it would be in the news (minus the names of the schools, perhaps, to avoid undue embarrassment to innocent kids), so that the point (which would be that far too many teens are doing drugs or having unprotected sex) could be driven home.

But if it really is true, doesn't that mean that quite a few sets of parents simply need to pay a bit more attention to their kids these days?

Your thoughts, as always, are welcome in the comments.