As schools re-open today after a week-long break following the swine flu panic, students are merrier with parents still frowning and concerned.
Nine-year-old Nathan D’Souza is itching to get back to his school playground of Stanislaus High School. As schools re-open today after a week-long break following the swine flu panic, students are merrier with parents still frowning and concerned. The state government had directed all educational institutions to shut down after swine flu cases were reported in schools.
There are mixed responses from parents as some feel confident, while others want the schools to take more action. “Nathan has been spending his mornings at his grandmother’s house, playing with his cousins, attending tuitions and having a gala time,” says Ashwin D’Souza, his father. He feels that precautions like drinking only boiled water, washing hands and face repeatedly, eating home food and being clean could help prevent the flu from spreading. “It is not practical to be monitoring your child 24x7, for working parents,” adds D’Souza.
When it comes to kids, many times, just asking them to be careful and cover their noses may not help. Parents feel that schools should buckle up and see to it that hygienic practices are well taken care of in schools. It is also very important that schools remain in constant communication with parents.
Leena Datt, mother of an eight year old says, “I feel schools are taking as much care as parents. Last week, when 30 of the kids in my daughter’s class started sniffling and coughing, the school sent all of them back home and the very next week, the school was shut.” Billabong High at Santa cruz, where Datt’s daughter Shreya studies, has a system of ‘parent class representatives’ who act as a link between the school and parents. “According to them the school has fumigated classrooms and has taken necessary steps to reopen for a complete working day,” says Datt.
According to Harshita Chembath, whose son Veer is a class II student at a suburban school, a crisis management committee at the school has been constantly in touch with parents. “I am of course a little scared about sending him back to school, but as doctors say, the flu is here to stay and we can’t just live in fear,” she said.
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