MANSFIELD — Two area schools were forced to close this week due to the spread of illness among students.
On Monday, St. Joseph Catholic School in Crestline announced school would be closed both Tuesday and Wednesday this week. On Tuesday, St. Peter’s Elementary and Montessori Preschool followed suit by announcing school would be closed on Wednesday.
St. Peter’s Principal Madalyn Bauer said the spread of illness had gotten to the point that it was disruptive to learning. St. Peter’s Elementary and Montessori Preschool has 237 children from preschool through sixth grade; as of Tuesday, Bauer said close to 30 students were out sick.
“I have several students out with the flu and several out with strep throat, and several students out with just a temperature and chills and a nagging cough,” Bauer said. “I’ve had some students coughing so hard they’ve thrown up.
“It’s not just one thing, it’s a combination.”
Richland Public Health nurse and epidemiologist Beth Armstrong said there has been a significant increase in influenza activity in Richland County.
“It seems to be sitting right around our area,” Armstrong said. “It started around the first of January and we’ve seen a significant increase; we’ve had a large number of influenza-related hospitalizations.”
Armstrong noted the current influenza vaccine does include protection against the strains of flu virus that are being diagnosed. It takes two weeks after getting a flu shot to get the full protection.
“It’s an excellent match with the flu shots out there,” she said. “If people are sick they need to stay home; adults that are diagnosed with influenza need to stay in for five days, but kids can be contagious for up to 10 days.”
While vaccination provides the greatest protection against the flu, other effective ways to avoid getting or spreading it include: washing hands frequently or using alcohol-based hand sanitizer; covering coughs and sneezes with tissues, or coughing or sneezing into elbows; and avoiding touching eyes, nose and mouth.
Bauer has encouraged these behaviors in both her students and her staff.
“We remind students to wash their hands, they use hand sanitizer before they eat and we keep hand sanitizer in the cafeteria on the tables,” Bauer said. “We’re doing everything we can, we’ve taught them to cough in the crook of their elbow, and the little ones are pretty good about that.”
Symptoms of influenza can include fever, cough, sore throat, body aches, headache, chills and fatigue. If you do get sick, stay at home until fever-free for 24 hours without using fever-reducing medication.
Bauer said she sent a note home to St. Peter’s parents asking that students are kept home an extra day in order to be fever-free for their return.
“Some students stay home for a day and they come back, and by mid-morning the temperature is back again,” she said. “I think we’re not keeping students home as long as we should.”
The absence of so many students has been disruptive in the classrooms, Bauer said. Some classes have had two or three students missing, others as many as five missing from one classroom.
“You can’t really introduce any new material because you’re going to have to reteach it when they come back,” Bauer said. “You can do some guided practice or silent reading, but as far as initiating a new lesson, that’s impossible.”
In the meantime, Bauer has encouraged teachers to assign “worthwhile homework” to their students like reading an extra book or practicing silent reading. The important thing, she said, is for students to not be out and about during their day off.
“The goal right now is to sanitize this building and kill some of the bacteria and virus germs, and to keep kids home resting, eating well, and getting extra sleep so everybody can come back and we can resume school and move forward,” Bauer said.
