Nine students were turned away from the annual blood drive held recently on April 3 outside the big gym.

A couple reasons were that some people were underweight, one was recovering from surgery, some had veins that were too hard to target with the needle and others have an iron deficiency, meaning that these people aren’t delivering as much oxygen to parts of their body as they can. So taking blood out of their body would be dangerous.

All participants needed to know that there are certain requirements that must be met before they could give blood. Some requirements are being 16 or older, weighing 120 pounds, having parent permission, etc. If students do not meet these requirements, they are legally not eligible to give blood.

This was the last blood drive of this school year. If students are thinking about donating blood next year, they should make sure they fit all of the requirements to give blood before they show up to donate so they are not turned away.