Parents wonder how schools combat the flu

NEW HANOVER COUNTY, NC (WWAY) — “My granddaughter’s class has been down to six, seven students. Eight students? And several teachers out,” Laura Rae said.

Rae’s granddaughter is a student at Anderson Elementary School in New Hanover County. She said a few weeks ago, her granddaughter got the flu and been sick a couple of times since. Rae said many parents are concerned because they have not heard from the school about how it is dealing with the outbreak.

“You ask if the superintendent can get back to you. They don’t. He’s got an assistant that just says, ‘we’re following health code.’ And that’s it. ‘The janitors are doing everything they can, they’re wiping things down.’ That’s all we’re getting for answers,” Rae said.

Rae said many parents wanted to know if a certain number of sick students would cause the school to close. Assistant Superintendent Doctor Rick Holliday and he said there is no specific percentage of students that would cause them to close the school.

“What we really look at is can we efficiently operate the school safely. And if you got a number of your staff out, you can’t get substitute teachers and those kinds of things, that’s when you begin to think, ‘you know, closing the school might be the right thing to do,” Holliday said.

He also said the custodians are still doing routine cleaning to keep any sickness down in schools.