Thursday Morning Open Thread: To Boldly Go…
52 minutes ago
Thursday, April 30, 2009
School closures... yea or nay?
I guess I've seen this in the newspapers and on the news in the past few days, but school closures are happening pretty close to us. If somebody shows symptoms then the school closes for a while in order to prevent the spread. Pretty crazy timing for us AP class taking seniors eh? While of course I hope that nobody at Aragon catches the flu, It seems a possibility. Additionally, and tragically, the first swine flu- caused death to happen in America was a 23 month old child who had traveled from Mexico, although another child has died in Texas. However, apart from those who are very young and weak, and as long as people don't wait when they feel symptoms, most cases are mild. Any thoughts on how the structure of our last high school year will be affected? At least it will make an interestingish story to tell people in 10 years.
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Haha. That's exactly what I thought when I heard that a San Jose school closed down. If they were to cancel that school and postpone their AP testing, wouldn't they have to move the date of the AP test for all the schools in the country? Or would they just use a different version of the test? Anyways, I don't know whether closing down the school is necessary yet. Maybe I'm just being naive, but I have confidence that with our technology and knowledge in medicine, we're going to figure out what this virus is and stop it from spreading like SARS did. We're so close to the end of the year, and unless there's a huge outbreak in the Bay Area, I think it would be kind of silly to hold us all in during what would be summer break. The infants dying are really sad and unfortunate. But I think that the few people in couple of the states that have been diagnosed with swine flu have strong enough immune systems to fight this...at least I hope so.
Who knows if the person who had flu symptoms had just that, the flu. Not the swine flu but the regular flu. They shut down an entire school and i can't speak for anyone else, but I just want to get this year over with and someone catching the swine flu would definitely put a damper on the end of the year festivities. Hopefully the virus wont spread onto our campus, but if it does wash your hands frequently. I honestly can't believe the year that our country is having, the swine flu I guess can be the national crisis of the summer as the economy was last winter and spring and probably summer. For once I just wish we weren't having a national crisis.
I dunno about all of this, alot of people I have talked to have mixed feelings about it. Many of them feel that closing down schools is a knee jerk reaction, and that closing down the schools with do nothing to prevent the spread of swine flu. If kids are not around in school, then they will most certainly find themselves in contact with other kids at other places anyway. If anything public places like the mall are more likely to be a place to contract it. Personally though, I feel that if I were the person who could make the call about shutting the school down, I wouldnt want the responsibility of being the person who could have done something but that didn't. I mean, if you can imagine the kind of heat that the administrators would take because they chose not to act in that situation it does make sense why they would choose to close a school down.
I heard today that if it is reported that many students at a school are exhibiting flu-like symptoms, the school is advised close down for 7 days. If a confirmed case of H1N1 arises, then the school has to be shut down for 14 days. This would seriously be a huge blow to schools and for high schools especially due to AP testing. I believe the media is creating too much of a big deal over the H1N1 virus. According to cnn, people who have the regular flu or even just a runny nose are making a lot of unnecessary emergency room visits. The fact that an air-borne disease is going around is unpleasant, but we should not be going crazy with school closures; it just doesn't help at all.
Ditto what Moeka said. Average traditional flu seasons cause more illnesses and fatalities than this swine flu, and I don't see us going crazy over the annual flu season. The only thing different about this thing is that no one saw the storm coming. But it doesn't mean that you have to enact measures to save us from a Category 5 hurricane when it's only a Category 1 or 2.
Here's some thoughts on closing down schools: Where are the kids at that school supposed to go? Does that mean that parents, who had planned to work, now have to leave work in order to watch their kids, causing an unbudgeted pay cut? Or find unbudgeted money to pay for day care, or something like that? I know that mostly applies to younger children, but still, that's an unrealistic expectation to place on parents, particularly in these dire economic circumstances. Add in that we're right in the middle of the STAR Testing and AP Testing season (because most schools don't do it as early as Aragon does it, and AP Testing only happens ONCE on prescribed days and times). That means that students and schools who have worked so hard instead don't get the credit they deserve.
I mean, closing a school down for 7 days if the flu is only SUSPECTED? And 14 days if it exists? That's flat out insanity and overreaction.
And the idiots at CNN and the like, as usual, flat out aren't helping.
This is really ironic for me in particular becasue in a class of mine we just watched a movie about hte deadly epidemic of the flu that happened in the early 1900s called the spanish flu and it freaked everyone out because it made people think we were goign to be getting the same thing or have a world wide epidemic of this flu. However, even if our school did shut down its only because of our own health and realistically tht is not going to happen. Unless anyone is planning on going to mexico in the recent months then i dont think anyone should be worried about it.
The Mexican government has recently lowered their swine flu alert from orange (elevated) to yellow (medium). Also, businesses and schools in Mexico are being re-opened. The numbers of deaths and illnesses in the world are much lower than expected. The cases in the U.S. are mild, and only a few people have died. This is reassuring, but we can not forget about the virus. I agree with Rick that it the decision to close down a school is a huge responsibility for the administrators. Better safe than sorry? Hopefully, the swine flu will not reach Aragon in the next 3 weeks.
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