Arthur Milnes
Northern News Services

NNSL (Feb 12/99) - The city's two school boards have fallen victim to a hoax that is no laughing matter to the staff of a faroff American hospital.

Last month, local schools such as Ecole St. Joseph and Mildred Hall sent warnings home to parents concerning acid-soaked tattoos in the shape of a star.

"The drug is absorbed through the skin simply by handling the paper," one school's warning said. "There are also brightly coloured paper tattoos resembling postage stamps that have the pictures of...Superman, Mickey Mouse, clowns, Disney characters or butterflies..."

"This is a new way of selling acid by appealing to young children."

As it turns out, the schools had been forwarded a fake memo that has been circulating around the world since the early 1990s.

Headlined "Warning to parents," the memo is said to be from J. O'Donnell of Danbury Hospital's outpatient chemical dependency treatment service.

A call to the hospital in Danbury, Connecticut -- which is about one hour by car from New York City -- by the xxxYellowknifer Monday, revealed the truth.

"We've had thousands of inquiries from every state and every continent," Danbury Hospital's public affairs spokesperson, Linda Wiseman, said. "It's been around the world and back..It's been attributed to us for six-and-a-half years...It is false."

So many calls have come in that anyone asking to speak to a J. O'Donnell when calling the hospital is routed to a recording explaining the hoax.

The 300-bed community teaching hospital has also been forced to post a message concerning the false Blue Star tattoo memo on its Web site.

"The memo...has been sent, often without anyone questioning its validity, via fax, Internet and flyers by parents, school officials and law enforcement agencies," it the message says. "Danbury Hospital has had no involvement in the distribution of the memo, which has travelled across cyberspace and generated thousands of phone calls inquiring about its genuineness...According to hospital officials, the memo was posted there in 1992 and mistakenly attributed to the institution ever since."

Wiseman said schools and police are usually the first ones to send out the false warning.

She also said a local reporter in Danbury has traced some parts of the story in the memo back to the 1980s.

At both local school boards, administrators said teachers and senior officials can simply take no chances when dealing with the safety of children.

"It always pays to err on the side of caution," Don Kindt, assistant superintendent of instruction with Yellowknife Catholic Schools, said.

At YK No. 1, the board's superintendent of education, Ken Woodley, had similar comments.

"It would seem this is a hoax but we would still be vigilant about this sort of thing," he said.