At what point should a school be shut down

[pirateofthecarolinas]

for a stomach virus? It is highly contagious!

On the 4th grade hallway on Friday these are the number of students PRESENT in each class.

4-2 went home
7
10-1 went home
9
8-teacher went home

The school was begging any parent available to come substitute. They had teachers down on mats in the floor, too sick to go home. By 10:00, there were 40 students in the office waiting to go home.

Of course my daughter starting getting sick Friday night. We kept her quarantined from our boys down her hallway. I got whatever she needed but she couldn't come out of her room. Thank goodness for her portable dvd player. She's feeling much better today.

I hope the weekend helps but I don't want to throw her back into the same situation on Monday. KWIM?

Lori

 

[leafette]

They actually closed a county down for a day or so near here right before Christmas for this same thing. I think it has to be around 30% here (or so I was told by the school nurse).

 

[teacups]

This sounds just like what went thru our local school last week (Idaho) . Our entire family ended up with it before we even knew it was coming! Out of 21 kids in my childs class, 8 were home on Monday. That was pretty much the way it was thru the entire school... up and down numbers all week long. I dont know when they should close the school. Good question. There was no talk about it here.

 

[Kitty 34]

Years ago our school shut down for 3 days but I can't remember what # of sick students/teachers they had to have.

 

[golfgal]

They can't just close down a school in the middle of the day unless it is the only school in the district because of the busing hassles. Most bus drivers aren't available at the drop of a hat so getting them to the bus garage and over to the school takes time.

I know that in our old school if 30% of the TEACHERS were out sick and were going to be out the next day as well, usually during influenza time, they would cancel school. They don't cancel school if many kids are gone.

I would be more concerned with food poisoning or something along that line if so many people suddenly came down with a stomach virus.

 

[Lanshark]

Shut it down

 

[pirateofthecarolinas]

I would be more concerned with food poisoning or something along that line if so many people suddenly came down with a stomach virus.

It's viral. It is also at my DS's middle school. I don't believe the numbers are as high as at my DD's school. My DD is at a magnet school, so the students come from all over the county. Busing does come into play at this school.

I know they can't shut down during the day, but the numbers were just as high on Thursday. The principal sent a voice mail to all parents about the virus. I felt that they should have closed on Friday to disinfect the school and let the kids get well over the weekend. Due to codes the teachers can't clean properly (Clorox) while the students are there.

While I was there on Friday, classes weren't on a normal schedule. Most were watching videos while the teachers were cleaning up accidents, calling parents and finding clean clothes for their sick students. The rest of the teachers were keeping their classes outside for playtime and some FRESH air.LOL

I just curious and I'm going to talk to the principal on Monday to get her thoughts. I just don't think it's fair to the teachers or the students.

Lori

 

[golfgal]

It's viral. It is also at my DS's middle school. I don't believe the numbers are as high as at my DD's school. My DD is at a magnet school, so the students come from all over the county. Busing does come into play at this school.

I know they can't shut down during the day, but the numbers were just as high on Thursday. The principal sent a voice mail to all parents about the virus. I felt that they should have closed on Friday to disinfect the school and let the kids get well over the weekend. Due to codes the teachers can't clean properly (Clorox) while the students are there.

While I was there on Friday, classes weren't on a normal schedule. Most were watching videos while the teachers were cleaning up accidents, calling parents and finding clean clothes for their sick students. The rest of the teachers were keeping their classes outside for playtime and some FRESH air.LOL

I just curious and I'm going to talk to the principal on Monday to get her thoughts. I just don't think it's fair to the teachers or the students.

Lori

The thing with illnesses, especially a stomach virus like this, is how long is it going to last??????? They could shut down on Friday and only have 3 kids that would have been sick that day, you just don't know. It's a total catch 22 for the principal in a case like this because if you do shut down you have a lot of angry parents that don't have daycare/childcare arrangements for their kids and can't get anything on such short notice or you have parents that are upset because they didn't close school because they didn't want their kid to get sick, etc. The other option is not to send your kids for a day while this blows over.

 

[SeeDisney]

I don't know the anwer to your question but our children's school too had an awful last week stomach virus attack as well.

 

[kbkids]

We had a similar thing happen the week before Christmas. DS's school (K-2) had 189 students out, 68 checked out during the day, and 16 teachers were out.

DD's school (3-5) had similar numbers, a little better though. I went up to the school to get my DD's class work, and they had tables lined up in the hallway with student's classwork that the teachers had sent up to the office.