Posts Tagged “h1n1”

No H1N1 this time!

It’s been a long strange school year. Earlier in the fall my district had about with the respiratory type of flu, and we did see some H1N1. There were times when over 20% of the student population was absent. In fact there were classrooms with as few as 6 students in them for days at a time.

Well, this week the “pukin’ flu” (as one student put it) hit my building, with a vengeance. It started with just a few, but just a couple of days in there were students lined up in the office sharing garbage cans as they waited for their parents. In every classroom the upchuck has hit the floor/desks/rugs, causing all teachers to have the “if you are going to be sick, just GO! - You don’t have to ask permission” speech. Students are being made aware of the location of every garbage can, and every bathroom. Again, hand washing is being stressed and the use of hand sanitizer is on the rise. However, I have come to the conclusion this is to no avail – those “pukin’ flu” germs are going to infect us all, they are on a mission.

This is why I feel that way. On Wednesday a guest teacher in a first grade classroom was trying to get students ready to go home about 2:45, so they would all be ready to board their buses at 2:55. During this time it’s really just managed chaos as snow pants, hats, mittens, scarves, boots, and coats get layered on and backpacks get loaded. In the midst of all of this, one little girl tells the teacher she doesn’t feel very good, then she immediately punctuates her sentence by vomiting all over her shoes and the floor. The rest of the children immediately start reacting with “EEEEEWWWW!”, “That’s GROSS”, “Why’d ya do THAT?”. The guest teacher holds her composure, and calmly stops a teacher in the hall to take the ill child to the office, and send a janitor back to the room. As the regular teacher is taking the ill child from the room, another student (yep, in the same room) vomits all over the floor and another student’s backpack. At this point, in desperation, the guest teacher asks the remaining students if anyone else is feeling ill. The second ill student is shipped off with another teacher as the janitor makes his way into the room to try to clean up the damage. (There is not enough money to get me to do that job.) While this clean up is going on, the guest teacher manages to get the rest of the students in line and starts down the hallway to the buses. On the way this class has to dodge 2 more “puddles” of vomit, deposited by students headed home. I don’t know if this guest teacher will ever return, perhaps in the spring after the “pukin’ flu” is gone!

Seriously, some days, I feel like I work in an ongoing Monty Python movie…….. “There’s always room for a thin mint.”

Armed with hand-sanitizer………

I made it through the week. The flu outbreak, whether it’s H1N1 or just the normal seasonal flu, has begun to hit our district in a big way. Over 20% of the students in our building were absent for 2 days last week. Teachers have also been ill; so many that they are unable to find substitute teachers for them all. Reading teachers get the call in this case, and I enjoyed a day in a fifth grade classroom.

The major weapon in our fight against the germs, is hand sanitizer. As students come into the room – “Please sanitize your hands.” As students enter the computer lab – “Please sanitize your hands”. As students leave the computer lab – “Please sanitize your hands”. As students leave for art…..well….you get the picture. Hand sanitizer is everywhere! As I spent the day with the fifth graders, it occurred to me, perhaps we need a better weapon – these kids are sanitizing every time they turn around and they are still dropping like flies.

Wednesday morning I was headed to the office to get some supplies. I passed one of my few well colleagues on my way. “Don’t go in the office”, she said in a low growl. HHHHmmmmmm. I had to go into the office, I needed these supplies. As I rounded the little hallway from the teacher work room to the office area I almost stepped on a student! Upon further observation, the principal’s office is full of students, the little hall is full of students, the guidance counselors office more students. The nurses’ office, FULL of students with pans and the office, well, it looked like a triage scene from MASH. As I gathered my supplies, I held my breath, then got out of there as quickly as I could. On my way out I passed another colleague…..yup, I too growled, “DON’T go in there.”

There is hope on the horizon however. Friday they held a flu shot clinic for students and about half of the parents sent permission for their children to get shots. Although the shots were given quickly and few students actually cried, the effects of the trauma were seen throughout the day. One teacher asked a student to hold the door for the rest of the class to go by and got an overly dramatic, “But……I got the flu shot…..I can’t do it”. I overheard two 4th grade girls talking on their way out the door at the end of the day. One must have gotten the shot and the other not. The one who received the shot was reliving the trauma. “First they poke in this long needle, and you don’t feel it right away but then…….this whole thing of PAIN shoots all over your whole body…..and you think you might DIE!” It just makes me wonder how many kids who got the shots will use that as an excuse to get out of their weekend chores.

Excuse me, I need to go disinfect my table, pencils, chairs……..well……my world.