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By JENNIFER LADE
October 29, 2009 12:00 AM
As the H1N1 virus hits local public schools in waves, districts are taking aggressive steps to ensure that sick youngsters stay home and the healthy students stay healthy.
In Westport, School Superintendent Carlos M. Colley said school nurses are keeping tabs on students who come back to school after being out sick. They take their temperatures on their first day back, in the middle of the day after any fever reducer has had a chance to wear off.
Colley said he wants to make sure students are truly better before they return to school and are not being sent back prematurely by their parents.
"It's not that I've seen that ... (but) I want to make sure that doesn't happen," he said.
In Westport, the latest victim of the flu is the middle school. For the past two days, 140 of the school's 613 students were out sick, many of them with flu-like symptoms. Last week, Macomber took the hit, when the preschool and kindergarten building had more than 30 of its 233 children out sick. At the high school, more than 100 of 508 students were absent earlier in the week; now the number is 70. Three or four staff members were out at each school, as well, Colley said.
"We had what I would consider a larger than normal number of kids out," he said.
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The number of closings this year appears on target to surpass the roughly 700 schools closed last spring when the swine flu outbreak first hit.
Local schools have not closed their doors, but some are reporting the same pattern as Westport: Just as attendance is recovering at one school, another one will suddenly see a spike in the absentee rate, many because of flu-like illness.
In Acushnet, absenteeism peaked last Thursday, Superintendent Stephen Donovan said, with more students absent than is normal for this time of year. But now, most students are heading back to school.
"It definitely has declined since last week, which is a good sign for now, but nobody can be too cautious with these things, and we hope to just continue with our protocol" to prevent further infection, he said.
In a memo on the Acushnet Public Schools Web site, parents are advised that any child who is sick with flu-like symptoms will be cared for by the school nurse and could be required to wear a surgical mask while waiting to be sent home. If the virus becomes more widespread, the memo stated, students and staff could be subject to fever and flu screening as they arrive at school, and sick students could be dismissed from school for seven days.
Schools are doing the best they can to keep illness at bay until the H1N1 vaccine becomes available, but that could still be a month away. Bill Cooper, superintendent of the Old Rochester Regional school district, said an H1N1 vaccine clinic scheduled for Nov. 14 was canceled.
"They're now looking to some time in December to have that," Cooper said, expressing concern that the number of sick students might begin to climb in the meantime.
"We're anxious and we're watching carefully and we're thankful that, to date, we have not had a major outbreak," he said.
The region was reminded of the tragic consequences of the flu on Wednesday when it was announced that a Rhode Island girl who died Monday tested positive for swine flu. Twelve-year-old Victoria Sousa, a seventh-grader at St. Philomena School in Portsmouth, tested positive for H1N1, though the exact circumstances of her death have not been determined, The Associated Press reported.
-snip-
October 29, 2009 12:00 AM
As the H1N1 virus hits local public schools in waves, districts are taking aggressive steps to ensure that sick youngsters stay home and the healthy students stay healthy.
In Westport, School Superintendent Carlos M. Colley said school nurses are keeping tabs on students who come back to school after being out sick. They take their temperatures on their first day back, in the middle of the day after any fever reducer has had a chance to wear off.
Colley said he wants to make sure students are truly better before they return to school and are not being sent back prematurely by their parents.
"It's not that I've seen that ... (but) I want to make sure that doesn't happen," he said.
In Westport, the latest victim of the flu is the middle school. For the past two days, 140 of the school's 613 students were out sick, many of them with flu-like symptoms. Last week, Macomber took the hit, when the preschool and kindergarten building had more than 30 of its 233 children out sick. At the high school, more than 100 of 508 students were absent earlier in the week; now the number is 70. Three or four staff members were out at each school, as well, Colley said.
"We had what I would consider a larger than normal number of kids out," he said.
-snip-
The number of closings this year appears on target to surpass the roughly 700 schools closed last spring when the swine flu outbreak first hit.
Local schools have not closed their doors, but some are reporting the same pattern as Westport: Just as attendance is recovering at one school, another one will suddenly see a spike in the absentee rate, many because of flu-like illness.
In Acushnet, absenteeism peaked last Thursday, Superintendent Stephen Donovan said, with more students absent than is normal for this time of year. But now, most students are heading back to school.
"It definitely has declined since last week, which is a good sign for now, but nobody can be too cautious with these things, and we hope to just continue with our protocol" to prevent further infection, he said.
In a memo on the Acushnet Public Schools Web site, parents are advised that any child who is sick with flu-like symptoms will be cared for by the school nurse and could be required to wear a surgical mask while waiting to be sent home. If the virus becomes more widespread, the memo stated, students and staff could be subject to fever and flu screening as they arrive at school, and sick students could be dismissed from school for seven days.
Schools are doing the best they can to keep illness at bay until the H1N1 vaccine becomes available, but that could still be a month away. Bill Cooper, superintendent of the Old Rochester Regional school district, said an H1N1 vaccine clinic scheduled for Nov. 14 was canceled.
"They're now looking to some time in December to have that," Cooper said, expressing concern that the number of sick students might begin to climb in the meantime.
"We're anxious and we're watching carefully and we're thankful that, to date, we have not had a major outbreak," he said.
The region was reminded of the tragic consequences of the flu on Wednesday when it was announced that a Rhode Island girl who died Monday tested positive for swine flu. Twelve-year-old Victoria Sousa, a seventh-grader at St. Philomena School in Portsmouth, tested positive for H1N1, though the exact circumstances of her death have not been determined, The Associated Press reported.
-snip-
