Chicagoland Schools Prepare for Swine Flu Battle

By Prescott Carlson in News on Aug 24, 2009 9:30PM

While everybody has been enjoying the mild summer grilling in their backyard and spending copious amounts of time in their local hangout's beer garden, the media has been slacking on their duty to continue to instill undue fear about H1N1 -- more sexily known as swine flu -- that had everybody panicking in the streets this past spring. But with hundreds of thousands of germ covered children getting ready to go back to school, the hand wringing (and washing) can begin again.

Schools across Chicagoland are taking preventative measures to guard against a swine flu outbreak, avoiding school closures. Suburban District 62 has implemented a new policy at their schools requiring students to wash their hands two times per day, making hand sanitizer required on the school list, and stepping up the education of kids about proper cleanliness and hygiene. Other schools are taking measures such as lining up kids for squirts of sanitizer on their way into the lunch room, and setting up areas to isolate students with swine flu symptoms while they wait to be picked up. Chicago Public School students will have bottles of hand sanitizer on their desks when they return to the classroom in September.

However, unlike the hair trigger closings that happened in May, the CDC this fall is recommending closure only in the event of a "major outbreak." They've also revised the guidelines as to how long a sick child should stay home, reducing the previously advised seven days to the usual time length for kids with a fever -- the student can return to school 24 hours after the fever breaks.