Monday, October 22, 2007

KIDS WANT A CLEAN SCHOOL


At least seven students across West Virginia have tested positive with a dangerous staph infection. Some, especially students, say the number is considerably higher.

Now, the students at one West Virginia high school are taking action to get their school administration to take notice.

You wouldn't think the kids would not have to do this. You'd think the adults in charge of their school could figure this one out on their own.

The kids can't believe that the clean up of their school has been limited to just a few areas and they want the rest of the school cleaned up as well.


What would you do? The kids are protesting out front of the school and refusing to attend class.

I don't blame them.

One student at the high school left a comment at WSZA which read:
"I am a student at Buffalo high school. There are 3 students that have MRSA. Mr. Grim said he was NOT going to have the school cleaned! He said that we didn't have the money, but we had the money to get new books and computers for a teacher who did NOT need them. Today we protested to keep our self clean, but the only thing he would tell us, is that even if we did clean ( which we are NOT) it wouldn't help. All
we got out of the protest was trouble. The staff wouldn't take us serious! Well
the reason of this note was to say thank you for putting our problem on the
news."

Wouldn't you think school administrators would be proud of the students who are concerned about the health of their school?

An upset mom of another student at the school also made a wise comment. She pointed out that infectious diseases find overcrowding a welcome environment. She wrote:

" I truly believe that being crammed into a school that is to small for the number of students that they have is a huge factor in this out break. Students are in classes that are not fit to handle the attendance, some of their classes are held in the gym and other places just to make room for them. The Board of Education has been aware of this problem for sometime Buffalo has needed a MAJOR expansion but has gotten nothing."

What is wrong with a county, state, or nation that can't provide a decent and healthy educational environment for its children?

Maybe the outbreak of MRSA staph infections can get those in positions of power to take notice of the conditions in schools for which they are responsible.

Or maybe not.

The following is from WSAZ in West Virginia.

Buffalo Students Protest Over MRSA

Some students at Buffalo High School in Putnam County are taking a drastic approach to raise awareness to MRSA and other staph infections.

A large group of students have been protesting all day in front of the school, refusing to go to class. The students say the school hasn't been properly cleaned.

This protest comes just days after state school leaders announced seven students in West Virginia have been diagnosed with MRSA. So far no one has been diagnosed with MRSA at Buffalo High School, but school leaders told us last week some students have been diagnosed with a staph infection. That's the less severe case.

The students protesting tell us the school's weight room and a few other places have been cleaned, but not the entire school. They say they plan to stay out there until the school is cleaned.

We tried to call the Principal of Buffalo High School, but our calls have not been returned.

MRSA can be spread from skin-to-skin contact. It's important to stress, the MRSA bacteria is more difficult to treat, but there are drugs that work to fight it if the infection is recognized in time.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Henrico County and Culpeper (Virginia) now report MRSA incidents and are going through the same

hoopla of acting as if they are doing something serious in response.

All the cleaning, washing, disinfecting is quite temporary and of very limited value. Better

than nothing, but not much better from a medical perspective.

Better solutions are in widespread use in Canada, in Singapore, in hotels through SE Asia, and in

hospitals, schools, universities, condos in USA and CA.

Yes, I am directly involved in that.

And as you might expect, knowing anything of Virginia politics and the "good old boy" way things

are done in this state, in particular --- Henrico County officials and Culpeper officials,

including all of their school board members, stand out uniquely as having eschewed any

communications, any meetings, anything period, to learn about what really works, as opposed to

what what some "good old John" has been doing for the last 100 years. It is truly quite sad, in

my opinion, when practical solutions are offered but simply ignored.

More info is at these sites: http://tetradgroup.com/healthysafe or
http://ecoasisnetwork.org/healthysafe
Also a short YouTube video clip: http://youtube.com/watch?v=pxVpWj1aDYo

Dr. Martin J. Dudziak
TETRAD Technologies CSO
martin@tetradgroup.com