[release]St. Ignatius College Preparatory in San Francisco's Sunset District will remain closed through the end of the week because of a stomach virus that has sickened more than 300 students and 30 teachers, principal Patrick Ruff said today.
The high school, located at 2001 37th Ave., was closed today because of an outbreak of gastroenteritis, Ruff said at a news conference held outside the school this afternoon.
On Tuesday, 50 students called in sick and another 90 were sent home, many of whom vomited in trashcans or in bathrooms on campus, Ruff said. One player on the girls' basketball team also became sick near the end of a game on Tuesday night, he said.
Ruff said about 325 students have reported being affected by the virus. There are 1,444 students enrolled at St. Ignatius, according to the school's website.
Although extensive cleaning has been done at the campus today and the city's Department of Public Health cleared classes to resume on Thursday, school officials decided to keep St. Ignatius closed until Monday "to ensure the health of our students," Ruff said.
Dr. Tomas Aragon, the Department of Public Health's director of population health and prevention, said the closure of the school is wise because, along with the safety of students, it would be difficult logistically to hold classes with so many teachers out sick.
Aragon said the city has not gotten reports of students sick at other schools but said that is a possibility because of the interaction between students in sports and other activities.
The San Francisco Unified School District posted a notice on its website saying there has not been a flu-related spike in absences at its schools, but that the district is monitoring the situation closely.
"We encourage students and staff to stay home when sick and to wash hands frequently," the message states.
Aragon said the virus is only potentially fatal among the very young or very old, who usually have other pre-existing illnesses. He said most people start feeling better after a couple days.
Aragon pointed to New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning, who had gastroenteritis in the week leading up to his team's NFC Championship game against the San Francisco 49ers on Jan. 22.
Manning recovered quickly and "unfortunately he played really well," leading the Giants to victory, Aragon said.
Although Aragon said the illness is relatively common, Ruff said this situation is new for him and other school officials.
"We've all talked about having not seen something like this before," he said. "It's so quick and so widespread."
Peter Radsliffe, whose son Jack attends St. Ignatius, learned of the virus when he received an automated call from the school on Tuesday.
"The unusual thing here was getting an emergency robocall. It was kind of surprising," he said. "I give them credit. That's a really efficient way to let the parents know."
He said he got the call while he was at work, and when he called home he learned his son was throwing up.
Radsliffe said Jack continued the vomiting throughout the night, and by this afternoon the bug appeared to have passed.
"He felt much better this morning," Radsliffe said. "He's sleeping, feeling fine, just the typical 24-hour bug that you get over."
Aragon said students and teachers who are sick have been asked to stay home for 72 hours until symptoms of the illness have decreased or gone away.
Along with the closure of the school, several of the school's sports teams have had games postponed because of the outbreak, including the boys' and girls' basketball and soccer teams, Ruff said.
Ruff said he hopes all of the school's students will recover quickly and be ready to return to class on Monday.
"Enjoy the next couple of days, and make sure to be healthy and be smart," he said.
Dan McMenamin/Zack Farmer, Bay City News[/release]
[url]http://sfappeal.com/news/2012/02/stomach-virus-sickens-300-closes-st-ignatius-high-school-until-monday.php[/url]
Glad I'm doing online schooling right now. Schools are just viral-time-bombs.
[QUOTE=Arcana;34504059]Glad I'm doing online schooling right now. Schools are just viral-time-bombs.[/QUOTE]
and a place for socially exercising with your peers
then again, facepunch doesn't know much about that
[QUOTE=skynrdfan3;34504071]and a place for socially exercising with your peers
then again, facepunch doesn't know much about that[/QUOTE]
It's because were all statistics and not real pupils. The american education system is like that.
I'm on the swim team here, I'm so lucky I didn't go to practice yesterday.
Those people that aren't sick are really lucky, they don't have to go to school for the rest of the week :v:
They caught the gay. It was only a matter of time.
My school gets bugs all the time and we don't get shut down for [I]anything[/I]. Not even snowstorms. In a warm temperate environment. In fact my school gets pissed when people miss days despite them telling us to stay home if sick. [sp]Probably because they get paid based on attendance and test scores.[/sp]
[QUOTE=gamefreek76;34504171]They caught the gay. It was only a matter of time.[/QUOTE]
San franscisco is awesome.
[QUOTE=Sickle;34504207]Please die. San franscisco is awesome.[/QUOTE]
[img]http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-BERa808ndhQ/TewvlTKgheI/AAAAAAAAAGw/E9pZKsSxIPg/s1600/swing-miss.jpg[/img]
[QUOTE=gamefreek76;34504171]They caught the gay. It was only a matter of time.[/QUOTE]
We must develop a vaccine from these halflings called bisexuals
[QUOTE=Arcana;34504059]Glad I'm doing online schooling right now. Schools are just viral-time-bombs.[/QUOTE]
...right, OK.
[QUOTE=codemaster85;34504230]We must develop a vaccine from these halflings called bisexuals[/QUOTE]
A vaccine is just a weakened or killed strain of the contagion, you're gonna have to go and get some gay and work with it yourself.
[QUOTE=Jetblack357;34504258]A vaccine is just a weakened or killed strain of the contagion, you're gonna have to go and get some gay and work with it yourself.[/QUOTE]
Noooo, the gay is like solanum, even the smallest vaccine will result in full infection!
The title had me worried that there was some new virus called the San Francisco High School Virus.
So a virus that makes you hipsters?
[QUOTE=The Baconator;34504796]So a virus that makes you hipsters?[/QUOTE]
That's even worse than that gay disease I hear about!
[QUOTE=RichyZ;34504200]you do know that people who are homeschooled arent all socially depraved hipsters? as long as they do extracurricular activities and have a job or something, they'll end up just as good or better than normal students.[/QUOTE]
Yes but that was an [I]overwhelmingly pisspoor[/I] reason not to be schooled
Surely he has other reasons but to claim health is just dumb unless you're the Boy in the Bubble or some shit.
"I'm going to send my very sick child to school, even though he has symptoms of sneezing every five seconds, and he can't cover his mouth at all!"
[QUOTE=RichyZ;34504200]you do know that people who are homeschooled arent all socially depraved hipsters? as long as they do extracurricular activities and have a job or something, they'll end up just as good or better than normal students.[/QUOTE]
yeah that kind of mindset would be somewhat understandable if this was 10 years ago when homeschooling was pretty much exclusive to christian overbearing households that homeschooled their child so they could remain sheltered and underdeveloped, but nowadays tons of people are doing online schooling because of scheduling and a better education
my mate does the online schooling and he's quite normal
Meh, I'm homeschooled.
[QUOTE=skynrdfan3;34504071]and a place for socially exercising with your peers
then again, facepunch doesn't know much about that[/QUOTE]
Do ho ho, because FP is only for Socially inept nerds. Has it ever occured to you that there are other reasons to do online schooling, aside from being a misfit?
I finished the first semester at a public High School, but, I'm moving to a different city shortly, so I decided I'd be better off doing my school work online so that I'm not having to catch up on a bunch of work.
[QUOTE=Crash15;34505053]"I'm going to send my very sick child to school, even though he has symptoms of sneezing every five seconds, and he can't cover his mouth at all!"[/QUOTE]
GOTTA GET THAT ATTENDANCE AWARD
[QUOTE=Elecbullet;34505047]Yes but that was an [I]overwhelmingly pisspoor[/I] reason not to be schooled
Surely he has other reasons but to claim health is just dumb unless you're the Boy in the Bubble or some shit.[/QUOTE]
When the hell did I say I wasn't going to public High School because of the illnesses? I didn't, but it is true that illnesses spread rapidly through places like schools, among others.
[QUOTE=Craig Willmore;34505236]GOTTA GET THAT ATTENDANCE AWARD[/QUOTE]
Fucking dumb how awards like National Honor Society have near-perfect attendance as a requirement. The fact that one can have good grades while missing lots of days and having to catch up should show their dedication.
[QUOTE=gamefreek76;34504171]They caught the gay. It was only a matter of time.[/QUOTE]
The extra layer of irony is that this is a Christian school.
[QUOTE=Arcana;34505184]Do ho ho, because FP is only for Socially inept nerds. Has it ever occured to you that there are other reasons to do online schooling, aside from being a misfit?
[/QUOTE]
has it ever occurred to you that i was making a joke involving a stereotype?
[QUOTE=rinoaff33;34504276]Noooo, the gay is like solanum, even the smallest vaccine will result in full infection![/QUOTE]
What if the cells are dead?
[QUOTE=rinoaff33;34505282]Fucking dumb how awards like National Honor Society have near-perfect attendance as a requirement. The fact that one can have good grades while missing lots of days and having to catch up should show their dedication.[/QUOTE]
Definitely, I recently missed close to 3 months of school due to a back injury flaring up with horribly dreadful results. I managed to make up most of that 3 months of school in under 3 weeks, and I was able to reclaim a nice amount of my Credits for that semester, the rest they let me make up online. And I've completed nearly a whole semester of said online stuff in under 2 weeks. I think that is a clear example of dedication beyond what those egotistic national honor society people pull off.
[QUOTE=Jetblack357;34505670]What if the cells are dead?[/QUOTE]
You can't kill a virus, a virus isn't living. You can [I]denature[/I] or destroy it but solanum lives on.
[sp]Solanum is a fictional zombie virus for people who really don't know...[/sp]
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