I've since learned that one HS parent was told the NASD wouldn't confirm or deny a student was diagnosed with MRSA, a staph based infection. The same parent was told no further information could be disclosed due to privacy/confidentiality issues.Today the Morning Call has a front page feature article on MRSA and how schools are combating it (read it here). The approaches noted in the article are much different than what was experienced at Nazareth last week.
From the article:
- "Several area school districts have responded by posting items on their Web sites and sending home notices, warning parents of the dangers and suggesting ways to keep families infection-free -- thorough hand-washing and not sharing the things families commonly share, such as towels and cell phones." Today I visited NASD web site and specifically visited the Pupil Services Page and the HS Nurses page. I found no information on MRSA.
- "in school districts where MRSA has turned up, officials are practicing full disclosure. East Stroudsburg Area School District issued a news release Tuesday about a case of MRSA" and "Parkland High School sent students home with a letter Monday when a student was found to have MRSA." It appears Nazareth had a case, but no disclosure was made.
- "Allentown Central Catholic High School did a top-to-bottom cleaning Oct. 21 after learning about a confirmed case of MRSA. Everything from the tables and desks in classrooms and offices, to handrails, door handles and restrooms were disinfected by a professional cleaning staff, said Principal Yvonne McCarthy." And further, hand sanitizer was placed in every classroom for use. It is not known what if any steps Nazareth has taken beyond its normal cleaning since there has been no disclosure or communication from the NASD on this matter.
- "In the Bethlehem Area School District, a reminder notice was sent to custodial and athletic department staff to make sure they continued disinfecting gym equipment every night, said Kathy Halkins, head nurse for the district." Again, it is not known if any measures like this are taking place in Nazareth.
- "The Southern Lehigh School District is disinfecting every time a new group leaves an athletic room." Considering visiting teams use facilities, an excellent idea, but not known what measures are being taken.
The above measures are all steps Nazareth could take with number one being full disclosure of incidents and informing concerned parents of what the school is doing to make it as safe as possible.
What do you think? Has NASD been proactive? Have materials since gone home to parents addressing this situation? Is extra cleaning occurring? What can NASD to better communicate or demonstrate they are being proactive? What do you need to know as a parent in regard to MRSA?
12 comments:
My MS child told me they were informed that if there was another case of MRSA, the schools would be shut down and sanitized.
The operative word here is "another". That would seem to imply that there has already been a case.
I guess it is the policy of this administration that if you turn a blind eye to a problem, it will just go away.
A word to the wise for those administrators that monitor this web site. If a child contracts MRSA with adverse effects, and it can be proven that you are covering up any initial cases, I am quite sure the parents of any affected child will have you in court so fast your heads will spin.
Since you strive to be like every other school around us, it is time to step up and mimic them on their openness and proactive approach to this major health issue.
You can't use the "privacy" line to cover it up. As long as a student's name is not attributed, there is not concern with privacy.
These are OUR children whose lives and well being are being compromised by your inability to do anything proactive. Do not think that we will sit back idly and watch this unfold in a bad way.
You will be held accountable.
I think they should make full disclosure. Not outing individuals and respecting HIPA laws, but confirming known cases of MRSA and Meningitis in the schools.
Otherwise, with rumors and innuendo rampant in this district it just creates increased fear in the community.
If they are getting other advice from their leadership or solictor, I think it is the wrong approach.
Again, I feel a pit in my stomach as I ponder if this district truly cares about our kids. This just being the latest example.
This is my message to NASD:
PLEASE inform parents and tax payers of things that you are doing. DON'T LIE~Just tell us what is going on.
I need to know how to help my kids and when I have to second guess everything I hear from admin and teachers, it makes me crazy.
I hear one thing from this person and something totally opposite from someone else. Whether it's the new building, the new stadium, MRSA, MS Activity Period, PSSA data etc. it doesn't matter.
We all know that everyone will not agree on everything this district does, but if you tell us what you are doing and why, whether we agree or not., at least WE WOULD KNOW.
Informed parents help make informed kids and together can make informed decisions. Keeping us in the dark is dangerous!
And just one more thing, we all know that informing the public of a case of MRSA will not break any confidentiality issues. If that was the case, I doubt all the other schools would be doing it. I know all parents would feel better knowing what we are dealing with instead of trying to figure out truth from rumor!
I know this comment won't be popular because I'm not bashing NASD or our administration or town but here goes.
My daughter attends the HS and brought home a paper outlining MRSA and how to safeguard against it. We talked about it because of the communication from the school and I then learned that the school district has hand sanitizer "every where" as my daughter put it.
As far as the website for NASD, I just went on it and searched with the letters mrsa and came up with information about the staph infection no problem.
My daughter said she has not heard of anyone sick with a staph infection.
For everyone so afraid and ready to post blame, I hope you are staying inside. You can come in contact with this infection anywhere, the grocery store, restaurants, library, mall, doctors offices, on vacation . . .
My final thought, please stop abusing antibiotics. This is why we are experiencing these superbugs. Everytime you give your child antibiotics for ear infections, throat soreness, etc., when most of the infections are viral and not affected by the antibiotics, you are helping create these superbugs. Antibiotics are wonderful when used on bacterial infections, not viral which is what we all have most of the time.
So everyone wash your hands and be kind and enjoy the beautiful weather.
This morning when I went on the NASD web site, I visited the Administration tab, clicked on pupil services, and selected health services from the left sidebar. There was no information. I clicked on the HS nurse's web page - and no information.
I did just do as you did and found the documents then tracked them to the pages where they appeared. They were added to the very bottom of the page under the stock copy on the Pupil Services page.
There is now a link at the "headlines" section of the home page - though at least in my browser you have to scroll down to see it.
I didn't get the impression from the communications I received that people were scared of MRSA as much as they were frustrated with NASD.
Maybe the district was caught off guard and not certain what to say when initial calls came in, but to say you won't confirm or deny, or to receive emails and not respond, or to respond without answering the question asked will lead people to believe that 100% of the truth is not being communicated to them.
I can say that unlike your daughter, one parent relayed that her daughter was told by another student that he had it. Another in MS said her daughter was told in discussing it that a student in the HS had it, and another at MS said something similar.
Now these are kids, sometimes they don't hear everything, sometimes they say things they shouldn't (like I have MRSA), but given this it is all the more important that communications are clear and responses immediate.
I hope no one has or had it, and I also hope the NASD is more prepared and communicates more effectively moving forward.
Thanks for reading and commenting.
I agree with rs. I think many of you are over-reacting to a media induced hysteria. Kidslove to spread rumors as do adults.
Anon 4:16,
I think you missed the whole point of this thread.
We are not overreacting because of MRSA, we are outraged that NASD has consistantly maintained silence over ANY issue.
For some reason, they do not feel they can be open an honest with the taxpayers that pay THEIR salary.
I have seen way to many things swept under the carpet or kept in the shadows so we, the parents, don't know.
Every other district in the area has been open and proactive in this latest MRSA episode. Not a peep out of Lesky or any other administrator.
So no, this in not overreacting because of MRSA, it is anger that this district has a hard time opening their mouths.
I guess I was not clear in my comment,
On October 24th my HS aged daughter came home with a letter from NASD talking about the MRSA outbreaks and that NASD has been contacted by the Health Department and they were following all guidelines as outlined by the Dept. The letter was signed Rosemary Mentesana, Dir of Pupil Services. It contained website info for futher information and printed on the back were specific bullets on symptoms, causes, treatments, prevention, etc.
I also, stated that there is hand sanitizer all over the HS, pretty much available at every classroom as per my daughter and two of her friends that I just questioned.
I guess I don't know what you're looking for an APB or news conference, if the District did that I suppose everyone would be complaining about the cost to the district to hold a news conference. (last part was a joke)
Got to go answer my door
Happy Halloween
I thin RS and Anon miss the point of our discontent. Of course they could get MRSA in any number of ways and I am not going to wrap my kids in saran wrap before I send them out.
What this issue illustrates, however, is the unwillingness of community leaders to communicate with the public. They create the rumor mongering by not being open an honest.
Whether it be not reporting boro crimes to the media or not ackowledging or dispelling rumors of MRSA or meningitis they are contributing to the problem.
The problem here is communication, not the disease itself.
RS,
WE ARE NOT TALKING ABOUT MRSA.
Is that clear enough? We are talking about the districts INABILITY TO COMMUNICATE with PARENTS.
The district REFUSED to confirm or deny because of privacy.
Excuse me, privacy is only affected if you use a name, not confirm or deny.
Open your eyes, they hide behind big words when in reality, they want to keep it silent or hidden.
NOC indicated the difficulty finding the information on the NASD site. Why is that? I can go to surrounding district web sites and easily find tons of information.
No, I am not afraid of MRSA. I am, however, sick and tired of these morons that run this district treating everything like state secrets.
Anonymous 9:11
Sorry, I must have misunderstood the title, see top of page "MRSA - How Area Schools are Responding, or Not".
In regards to your comment about the websites of other districts and their information I question how many websites you have visited. NOC acknowledged that the info IS on the NASD. As far as other districts:
I looked on 10 other local district websites, 4 of which had something on their district homepage or HS homepage, 6 did not.
Of the 4 that had info that had dated material it showed October 31 and 29. NASD's info was sent out October 24.
Since I "started this" let me say I think it is a good conversation, but let's not get upset with one another.
Sending a note home and adding a link to the note is good, however, we have email alert systems in place that also could have been used as well and that would have been better.
It appears that only HS students have been advised of MRSA. Why?
It might appear to an outside observer that they were notified because there was some risk at the HS greater than at the other buildings.
We all know that rumors spread. On this site we can air them out a bit and collect information from more than one source. It is one reason why I started and keep this site up, not everyone can keep up with everything so we each contribute.
People typically come to me for a few general reasons.
First, they don't know where to go or who to contact. Typically I can give them an answer without making a post.
Second, people have gone to the right place and gotten no where, they are frustrated and want to know if others have experienced the same.
Third, people know where to go but would prefer to be anonymous in addressing it.
Fourth, they want to ask if anyone else has a concern or feels a certain way about something.
These are generally how the emails could be grouped as why come to NewsOverCoffee.
In this case, I think I got email covering all four situations with an abundance out of frustration.
A parent got what was perceived to be conflicting and/or less than full truth when contacting the school. This sentiment was expressed by another individual soon after. Since then I've heard from people who emailed and got no response, emailed and had a response, but it didn't answer their question. And I heard from one who did finally get through to someone who told her there was no known case of MRSA.
On the constructive side of this case study, there are many ways the NASD could have done better and I hope they implement at least some of them in the future.
On the MRSA side of things, I do find it odd that answers were at first we won't confirm or deny, and later they denied, but communications were directed at HS (at least I didn't get anything from Shafer) and not district-wide.
If it was proactive, why not all students in all buildings?
Again, many take-aways from this and let's hope positive steps are implemented as a result.
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