Yet another "flu worry" thread, sorry!

[yoopermom]

DS14 has been brought up to play with the varsity on Saturday for football playoffs. It's over 2 hours away, so I googled the school's website to get directions, and found out that the entire district has been shut down this week W-F due to the flu. The game will go on anyways, but some of us parents are concerned about our boys. I know they'll have cleaned the schools during the shutdown, but we all know what gym locker rooms are like. We've been VERY lucky here to have minimal absences due to the flu, and I'd hate to see the team bring it back and share it with everyone in our tiny towns!

Don't worry or is there some way to be proactive?

TIA!
Terri

 

[Erin1700]

I would worry. Not sure what you can do about it though.

 

[Pumbaa_]

I would be concerned too. football is a contact sport plus sitting in the bleachers with all the fans - sorry, i know there is an obligation to the team, but if there school and students was too sick to be in session, this game should also be rescheduled

 

[EthansMom]

I would be concerned too. football is a contact sport plus sitting in the bleachers with all the fans - sorry, i know there is an obligation to the team, but if there school and students was too sick to be in session, this game should also be rescheduled

I agree. I think the game should be rescheduled.

 

[C.Ann]

At my DD's former high school, 400 students became ill with "flu like symptoms" several days after attending the Homecoming.. The school itself would not "confirm" that it was H1N1, but my DD spoke to one of her former teachers and it was in fact the flu..

Whatever your "gut" is telling you, go with that..

 

[Tess]

DS14 has been brought up to play with the varsity on Saturday for football playoffs. It's over 2 hours away, so I googled the school's website to get directions, and found out that the entire district has been shut down this week W-F due to the flu. The game will go on anyways, but some of us parents are concerned about our boys. I know they'll have cleaned the schools during the shutdown, but we all know what gym locker rooms are like. We've been VERY lucky here to have minimal absences due to the flu, and I'd hate to see the team bring it back and share it with everyone in our tiny towns!

Don't worry or is there some way to be proactive?

TIA!
Terri

Who are you playing Terri? We played our penultimate game against Stockbridge. That school had been on a shut down as well. Our boys were fine and finished out the season last week without issue. In contrast, another area school closed and they forfeited a Friday game. . .I think that might have been an Ohio team though.

Two or three of our neighboring schools have been closed over the past couple of weeks, but our school has held a steady 6% absence rate, normal for this time of year.

Obviously MHSAA is not going to reschedule the play-off game(s) so keep your fingers crossed the maintenance team has disinfected well. Since the school was closed Wednesday, I'm sure things will be in shipshape condition. Further, perhaps the football team was not affected by the infection.

Good luck to your team--we play Concord this week.

 

[maroo]

Does it not seem strange to cancel school to stop the spread of illness, but still hold a football game where the students can really mix up germs with one another?

That just seems very odd?

 

[yoopermom]

We're very close to the WI/MI line, and, to the best of my understanding, WI will not allow extracurriculars on a day that the school is closed, but MI doesn't seem to care. So we're playing Cedarville, Tess (on Lake Huron, just NE of the bridge) and they'll have been out of school W-F. But you know how athletes are, they're going to play even if they're sick as a point of pride, and it's a VERY small school (even by U.P. standards), so I can't imagine that we're not going to end up exposed. I emailed our admin and asked if they couldn't petition to at least have the location changed, but I'm sure nothing will be done. I'm not going to eat from the concession stand or use their bathrooms, if I can help it, but I worry about the athletes...

Terri

 

[Tess]

We're very close to the WI/MI line, and, to the best of my understanding, WI will not allow extracurriculars on a day that the school is closed, but MI doesn't seem to care. So we're playing Cedarville, Tess (on Lake Huron, just NE of the bridge) and they'll have been out of school W-F. But you know how athletes are, they're going to play even if they're sick as a point of pride, and it's a VERY small school (even by U.P. standards), so I can't imagine that we're not going to end up exposed. I emailed our admin and asked if they couldn't petition to at least have the location changed, but I'm sure nothing will be done. I'm not going to eat from the concession stand or use their bathrooms, if I can help it, but I worry about the athletes...

Terri

Yep, know it well. . .we've talked in the past--our family lived in Gaylord for 15 years or so. . .glad to be much farther south now--at least by MI standards. Good luck with the game and the team staying healthy. It is problematic every year that play-offs seem to coincide with the beginning of flu season.

 

[yoopermom]

And good luck to you against Concord! (I bet it has more than 123 students...who am I to talk since ours only has 240...)

Fingers crossed that we all stay healthy!

Terri

 

[OceanAnnie]

Does it not seem strange to cancel school to stop the spread of illness, but still hold a football game where the students can really mix up germs with one another?

That just seems very odd?

Yes it does seem strange. It sounds like someone dropped the ball.

 

[yoopermom]

As I said, I have NOT googled it, but from what I hear on the local news, MI has chosen not to let school closures affect afterschool activities. And, C.Ann, the closest "big" high school went through the same thing, went ahead with homecoming and big dance, and then ended up closing the next three days due to illness (what a surprise...).

Terri

 

[EMom]

ACK! I wouldn't be thrilled about going or having my kid play. What sort of absentee rate did they have to justify closing? It must have been high.

All this reminds me of a football week back when I was in HS. I went to a small school and we could not afford to have very many players out sick. It's Texas, so the games in small towns are on Friday nights. Meaning, if you aren't at school on Friday, you can't play Friday night.

Some sort of horrific virus with Linda Blair-Exorcist worthy vomiting was raging through our school and some of the football players had it. But it was game week with one of our biggest rivals and they were NOT going to miss the game, so they dragged themselves to school on Friday. Those of us who were non-barfers kept our distance.

The game was away and that school had stands that were dang near ON the football field. Meaning, we had WAY too good a view of what was happening on the field. I think my friends and I were in the first or second row, heaven help us. The game barely started when the vomiting got underway. The guys would be lined up, facemask to facemask, and our team would spew vomit on the opposing team. (I laugh to keep from crying at the horror of it.) It was beyond disgusting. We were just thankful we were far enough away not to be barfed on. That night, I kept my head down a lot, as I am a sympathy barfer and was afraid I'd hurl just for solidarity's sake.

I don't even remember if we won. I do remember the other team was unnerved and who could blame them? A few of the more twisted members of our team thought it was a brilliant strategy. Maybe that's what YOUR opposing team is going for???????

 

[NEVERENOUGHWDW]

Could we put all the swine flu threads together?

This is becoming THEH1N1....This is just from a few pages!!!!!!!

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2318341
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2319649
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2319454
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2319339
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2318988
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2319416
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2318798
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2317477
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2312470
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2318881
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2318722
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2318601
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2318538
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2318305
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2318218
http://www.disboards.com/showthread...://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2317653

 

[yoopermom]

While it would be nice to have a separate board (as we've started a thread asking for), in the meantime, I think that as long as the OP mentions flu/H1N1 in the title, that should be good enough. There are lots of threads of no interest to me, but I just don't read them....

Terri