Federal officials urge districts to gear up. Local educators beginning to ask tough questions about pandemic.
Poore
By Tom Murse And Cindy Stauffer
Updated Feb 19, 2007 15:58
It was about the bird flu.
“Her question was, ‘What do you see as a potential and what will the planning be?’ ” Stewart recalled today.
At school board meetings and parent-teacher get-togethers, the deadly strain of avian flu expected to hit the shores of the United States has emerged as yet another big concern for educators.
“This is the type of thing that catches the attention of the nation,” Stewart said. “I’m hoping it’s a Y2K type of thing and becomes something that people focus on — but it’s really nothing in the end.”
The federal government has begun advising the nation’s schools that it’s not too early or even alarmist to make preparations for a full-scale outbreak of the contagious disease.
That means most schools here and across the country are likely just now beginning to ponder some very tough questions.
If classes shut down for weeks, how will a district keep kids from falling behind? Who will keep the payroll running, or ease the fear of parents, or provide food to children who count on school meals?
Who coordinates decisions on closing schools or quarantining kids?
“Our nurses just received the guidelines and checklists from the Centers for Disease Control, and to be frank with you, I have not had an opportunity to look through that yet,” Hempfield superintendent David Poore said today.
“What we would first be doing is formulating a committee of staff members and, in particular, parents to be able to develop an emergency plan for such a pandemic,” Poore said.
But if there’s one thing school boards and superintendents have certainly gotten used to, it is emergency planning for student violence, terrorism or severe weather.
Almost every public school district in the country in this post-Columbine era already has in place specific emergency plans that may very well coincide with federal recommendations.
“I will tell you that Solanco School District has an emergency response plan in place,” said spokesman Keith Kaufman. “There’s not a section on bird flu, but there are sections that include biological or chemical terrorism attack, a medical section for surgical emergencies.
“So we would never be starting from scratch,” Kaufman said.
The bird flu, as it has been called, refers to the deadly H5N1 strain of the avian flu. It is spread from direct contact with contaminated birds, and has infected more than 170 people and killed roughly 100. None of the cases have occurred in the United States, but officials say the disease is likely to arrive this year in birds.
As outbreaks have hit Africa, Asia and Europe, officials have launched campaigns to educate the public. To help stop the spread of the disease, farmers have killed tens of millions of chickens and turkeys.
Fearing the virus could change into a form that passes easily among people, the government is circulating checklists on preparation and response steps specialized for preschools, grade schools, high schools and colleges.
Some of the advice is common sense, like urging students to wash their hands and cover their mouths when they cough or sneeze to keep infection from spreading. Other steps would take schools considerable time to figure out, such as legal and communication issues.
Federal health officials are particularly concerned about schools because children ages 5 to 18 tend to be the biggest spreaders of flu viruses in the community. In the event of a pandemic, schools may be ordered to close to prevent spreading the disease, and such closures may last a month or longer.
If that happens, the question then becomes, “Now what?”
“We don’t have a mechanism for educating a large number of students other than existing classrooms,” said Penn Manor’s Stewart. “We’re not prepared to do anything online with 5,300 kids.”
(This article contains information from The Associated Press.)
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