VICTORIA -- A mother says she is distraught after her teenage son was pricked by a needle at a Saanich park on Monday.

Jayna Forgie’s 15-year-old son thought he had been stung by a bee when he went to lay in the grass.

“He sent me a message that he had been poked by a needle,” said Forgie. “It was dirty on the bottom – a bunch of gunk collected in the bottom of it.”

When he told her what happened she was angry and concerned for his safety. 

“I don’t like to admit it but I was angry," she said. "Angry that this happened because it is an avoidable situation and then the mom in me was worried and nervous." 

Her son discarded the needle and went to the hospital. 

“We were seen by a doctor... who told us the risk of infection was very low, but he did do a blood test,” said Forgie.

Saanich Mayor Fred Haynes tells CTV News he was alarmed to hear of the incident. 

“As Mayor of Saanich it is very distressing and we will be taking all appropriate actions,” said Haynes. 

Saanich parks staff went to the area Tuesday to investigate and staff says they do sweeps of parks weekly, or multiple times per week depending on the park. 

Haynes said there are no needle disposal bins at the parks because there was never a need for them. 

“The thought that there will now be some trepidation and concern about going into our parks, we have to address that head on and our park staff, police and council will,” said Haynes. 

Saanich police say they are not aware of any needles found in the park recently but are concerned.

Const. Markus Anastasiades said police are doing checks of the parks to make sure people are complying with the overnight camping bylaw every day. 

“Even though there was no intention it’s certainly concerning for us to hear this happened,” said Anastasiades. 

The family will wait a few days for the results of the blood work and will get another test done in a couple weeks. 

Forgie hopes by speaking out it prevents other families from being harmed. 

“It could happen to anybody, I mean, I know multiple families go to that park and little children walk around on the grass in their bare feet,” she said.