School officials should've been forthcoming
Turns out that the superbug infection rate is a little higher than we were led to believe. Five football players at Palmetto High were infected a few weeks back. And what did school officials do?
They didn't contact the school community. Oh, no, that would've been too responsible. They chickened out and sent letters only to parents whose children were on the team. The excuse: they didn't want to alarm the parents. Yeah, right.
Well, here's a bulletin for those decision-makers: Football players come in contact with other students -- in the classroom and through extracurricular activities. In fact, my 16-year-old is a varsity football player. His team will be playing Palmetto this Saturday. The likelihood that he will have "open skin" in this bruising game and will come into contact with someone from the opposing team is as certain as death and taxes.
Schools need to stop worrying about their reputations. Lesson here: Less damage control and more information.
They didn't contact the school community. Oh, no, that would've been too responsible. They chickened out and sent letters only to parents whose children were on the team. The excuse: they didn't want to alarm the parents. Yeah, right.
Well, here's a bulletin for those decision-makers: Football players come in contact with other students -- in the classroom and through extracurricular activities. In fact, my 16-year-old is a varsity football player. His team will be playing Palmetto this Saturday. The likelihood that he will have "open skin" in this bruising game and will come into contact with someone from the opposing team is as certain as death and taxes.
Schools need to stop worrying about their reputations. Lesson here: Less damage control and more information.
posted by Ana Veciana-Suarez at 8:41 AM
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5 Comments:
I love your blog. It's very interesting.
I am a fifth-grade teacher. I am nervous about this virus. Our classroom are not very clean. I think the custodians have about 5 minutes a day to clean the rooms (including the bathroom, sink, dust the floor (never wash). That is because all of the money cuts
Ana, I disagree with you this time.
The school did not keep it a secret to keep the parents in the dark. They were following the instructions from the Director of the Health Department.
People in the health industry are very concerned about causing a widespread and unproductive public hysteria.
As the last couple of days have shown - they were right. The media has nothing else to report about since Britney is sober today and Ana Nicole is still dead.
So, they whip the public into believing that this "super bug" is lurking on the desktops of their childrens' schools. They really believe that their children are in dire straits when they enter the classroom.
This staph infection is (if caught in time) relatively easily cured. The 5 football players from that high school have been treated and are no longer infected. Now what?
Do you think that they are a danger to the Coral Reef players? I don't think so.
It is easy to jump on the "kill the principal" band wagon - it is easier than facing the fact that, in this life, there is no activity that is risk-free (unfortunately) and that sometimes people in authority are limited by the instructions from authorities (the health department).
The other side of that coin is - the 5 kids' right to medical privacy. How would you feel if it were one of your boys - and it was broadcast on the news that he had some horrible contagious disease? Well, it can't happen. There are laws that protect that information. Perhaps this is another reason that the health department did not broadcast the information about this particular "outbreak" to the media.
Let's keep our heads in this situation and work together to solve this problem.
Cool heads can make better decisions than hysterical minds.
It's interesting to see the comments after a couple of days. My friends, like my readers, seem evenly divided. At the football game Saturday night, the joke in the stands was Palmetto's new nickname: "The MSRAs" One mother from my school said her son wanted to wear long-sleeves under the uniform so as not to be contagious. Another was outraged that her son had insisted on playing. I think these were exaggerated responses, but I still understand the anger of being in the dark.
Yes, the school followed the Health Department's lead, but I still think it is better to err on the side of disclosure.
Keep the comments coming. I'm curious to hear what students told their parents.
As it turns out, only one of those football players had a confirmed case of MRSA. Now, they are finding it in other schools -- I wonder if it is actually more common than what we thought originally.
My kids are not concerned. They are aware of the need for hand-washing and showers - and if we see a suspicious sign of any kind - to the doctor's office we will run.
I truly believe that the media has a responsibility to report the news in a calm and informative way -- not the dramatics that we have been witnessing lately. It is a sad thing to watch.
People watch the news and are scared to death. We should urge people to be informed and careful.
The same thing that I tell my kids.
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