Well, I had hoped not to have to comment on it much, but it would seem that discussion of the swine flu is unavoidable. Especially since it's pretty much sitting on my porch step.It was one thing when it was a kid down in San Antonio. But then a kid in Richardson, the neighboring school district, caught it, causing that school to shut down for a week. Then last night, the Fort Worth School District decided that they were going to shut down ALL of their schools until May 11!
Cah-REEE-peeee!!!
Today, Dallas closed down a school where a kid had swine flu. Oh, and the girl who was giving the TAKS test in the room right next to me all day long has been complaining of sore throat and body aches.
So it's probably just a matter of WHEN and not IF my district will close schools for however long. Especially since the world seems so out of control over it. I mean, really Egypt and Japan? Killing all of the pigs in your country?? REALLY???
Isn't that a bit extreme? And how effective is that really, since the flu is transmitted from person to person, and not from hog to dude.
Should we slaughter all of the chickens in an attempt to prevent the chicken pox??
Well, I suppose it's a good thing the dress code doesn't say anything about surgical masks, because we may very well see some of those on Monday.
Assuming of course that school is even in session on Monday...
11 comments:
That picture just made my day.
At least there aren't pig farmers throwing rocks in the street:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090429/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_egypt_swine_flu
Germ-X!!
The seniors at my school (it is a 6-12 school) went to the Renissance Fair in Dallas earlier this week. Maybe I should start carrying around Germ-X and a mask.
Well anyway, go to my blog. You got an award.
Before we even had any suspected cases of swine flu in my state we had parents telling us they wanted to take their kids out of school 'until the whole swine flu thing is over' so could we please send all their work and homework home with them . . . Umm, let me see, that would be NO! School is not closed.
I hope your school doesn't have to close - it's such a pain to have to extend the school year to make up the missed days! If we have to miss any days at this point, we'll either have to extend the school day or work Saturdays to make up the hours :-(
They closed our school down last Thursday and won't be open again until May 11th due to a "probable" case. We get paid and no we do not have to make the days up. I just don't know what to do with all this unexpected time off!
Mary - wow, you get the time off and don't have to make up the days?! I'd be SO excited - I always have SO much stuff to do and not enough time, that I'd love to have that kind of time off. Actually, I did - back in December when we had ice storms around here, and that's why we're working till the end of June AND lost most of our April vacation :-( BTW, I tried to comment on your blog but it wouldn't let me.
Brian, do we even HAVE pig farmers in America??
Jason, thanks for the award! Can you send me a bottle of Germ-X with that? ;)
Mary, where do you work? Lewisville? Cleburne? Did your kids miss TAKS?
AA, I really am hoping that we do NOT close down. I know the break would be nice, but I would rather NOT be affected so strongly by a suspected epidemic.
Yes, I have heard that Texas schools will not have to make up the days they miss, but I've even heard that schools that missed the TAKS test won't have to make those up! That is insane! As much as I hate standardized tests, I would be kind of pissed if I DIDN'T get to see the results of all of our hard work this year!
I am all the way up in a suburb of Chicago. Out of the thousands of school in the area, we were the chosen one! We have three days to make up as is from the crappy cold winter we had.
A school near me shut down for two weeks because of one "probable" case. Insanity if you ask me. My school is located about a mile away from the first CA school closed and our kids play sports with theirs - and yet nothing.
Our attendance clerk has to ask questions relating to health of all parents who call their kids in sick and report it to our district, who compile it daily and send it to the health department.
If that is how they get their "probable cases" that's sad, as the questions can apply to anything.
So far our district is keeping its collective heads and simply telling sick kids to stay home, but I suspect hysteria will hit before long. There is only four weeks left of school - hopefully we'll make it through. I wouldn't mind an early out, but in the CA district, staff and teachers still have to work.
I heard that at least one private school in Hong Kong is requiring parents to take their children's temperatures in the morning before they send them to school and not it down on their homework card!
Such panic!
Yikes! And school is pretty much over for y'all, too, so what will the Powers That Be do with the lost instructional time? Ours are already gearing up to teach via Blackboard (online site), and we have only 3 confirmed cases in the state!
BTW, please don't forget Sx3 today. We're celebrating Cinco de Mayo with a Tex-Mex cookbook giveaway!
Ha Ha!! Brilliant photo. I wonder if that little swine:) is the cause of the 18 confirmed cases in the UK..............
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