My Kids' School Was Suspended For A(H1N1)

This post will serve as replacement to deleted post I posted yesterday regarding a school which already have 1 confirmed case of A(H1N1) and happens to be the school of my children.

I don’t see anything wrong with my post yesterday except a small part of it mentioned the school name (used it also on the post title). A screenshot of the post was saved on my computer.

Last weekend, CHED (Commission on Higher Education) announced the official class opening was moved to June 15 for colleges and universities. On the contrary, DepEd won’t follow CHED’s class suspension according to ABS CBN website (link is no longer available from their site).

It is clear that my purpose is not about the school per se but the idea that DepEd should as well follow CHED’s reschedule of class opening to June 15 especially for private schools. We have to admit that some private school students (elementary and high school) belong to “can afford” families that having their summer vacation abroad is normal. My concern are the students who will get infected of the virus by close contact to student who just came from travel abroad.

Panic? The moment I received the SMS, naturally I got worried of my children same as the many parents waiting outside of the school waiting for class suspension. According to DOH guidelines, If one school has confirmed positive case of novel influenza A(H1N1), the school principal can declare the suspension of classes. You can download the DOH Guideline for schools here for additional information.

I was lucky to contact the school after many times of getting a busy tone, that was around 11AM. I haven’t got the chance to know who I spoke with on the other line, I asked her if its true. Other parents said that the student was confirmed positive of A(H1N1). She said, its true but the student wasn’t able to go to school at all. So, there’s no reason to suspend class, right?

Odd? There are many hearsays, speculations about the issue. I know that it was a girl, a 3rd year high school student. I heard that the girl went to a mall with her classmates/friends recently. First day of school was Thursday (June 4) and suspended at 12nn because of the bad weather, no classes in Friday. At 6PM, the news spread like fire among students for class suspension and will resume in June 22. I called up the school again and its true.

What’s the real score? I received a comment yesterday from post yesterday (already deleted) which I read only now saying “The student already went to school last thursday, apparently the school doctor sent home 8 students who had a vacation abroad, including the girl who was later confirmed positive of the A H1N1 virus. Classes are now suspended and will resume on June 22“. Time commented was 11:30pm.

To avoid further speculations among parents and students, in behalf of the parents, I’m requesting a memo informing us (the parents and students) of the real incident. There are loopholes in the incident and we deserve to know what really happened.

Still, I don’t know if this case is already counted to already 46 confirmed A(H1N1) cases in the Philippines.

Related posts:

1. 1st A(H1N1) Community Outbreak Declared In Nueva Ecija
2. CHED: School Opening Is On June 15
3. No More Additional Thermal Scanners – DOH
4. A(H1N1) Global Pandemic Alert 6
5. A(H1N1) Vaccine? 111 A(H1N1) Cases?