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3 · OAKVILLE BEAVER Wednesday, May 13, 2009 H1N1 flu confirmed at four Oakville schools Delay in sending home alert to St. Luke's school parents Inside Automotive........................................20 Artscene..............................................22 Sports..................................................25 Classified.............................................27 Partial Delivery: Sport Mart, The Bay, JYSK Bed and Bath, Arrow Furniture, BBQ Galore, Burloak Paving, Cudmore's Garden, Sunshine Children, SAGE Magazine, James Boyd, Zellers, Home Hardware, Sheridan Nurseries, Toppers Pizza, The Shoe Company, West of the City, City Parent, Staples Business, Home Depot, Bouclair, Rona Cashway, Sport Chek Continued from page 1 All cases have been mild with the students recovering from the virus at home. "As expected, we are seeing community spread of the virus," said Dr. Bob Nosal, Halton Region Medical Officer of Health. "We cannot stress it enough that if you are ill with influenzalike symptoms including cough and fever, stay home from work, school, or any other gathering." Denton noted that besides keeping in contact with Halton Region's health department on a more than daily basis, the public schools are taking a number of precautions aimed at halting the spread of the virus. "We have requested our elementary administrators to schedule frequent hand washing for staff and students with soap and water and we are trying to encourage the same with secondary school students although it's not quite as easy," said Denton. "We're also reminding staff and students about proper hand washing and to cover their coughs." At Lorne Skuce and T.A. Blakelock, the schools' custodial staff have stepped up the disinfecting and cleaning of the schools' `touch surfaces' such as railings, door handles and fountains. "We are asking anyone with flu-like symptoms -- a cough, a fever -- to stay home and contact their health care provider and otherwise, if people are healthy and have no symptoms, they can go about their normal day," said Denton. "We're not canceling activities because, from what we've been advised by Halton public health, these are mild flu symptoms." The Halton Catholic District School Board noted, as per standing policy, parents of students exhibiting signs will be called and advised to keep the student home until they are well. The board also has a Pandemic Response Plan, however the response thus far is not meeting with the approval of all parents. Sean O'Shea, who has a daugh- ter at St. Luke Catholic School, is voicing deep concern that the presence of the H1NI virus was not disclosed to most parents until Tuesday afternoon even though it was discovered on Monday. O'Shea found out because his daughter was unable to attend school that day, so he received a courtesy call informing him that because his daughter was not at school she would not be able to take home a letter outlining the discovery of one case of swine flu at the school. "They were supposed to release this letter and apparently they were waiting all day for Bob Nosal to send the board the letter and the principal only got the letter at 2:50 p.m. and so the school was dismissed without getting this letter out yesterday (Monday)," said O'Shea. "So, the 50 or so parents whose kids were off yesterday (Monday) got informed (through a phone call), but nobody else got informed and to my surprise the letter doesn't go out until the end of the day today (Tuesday), which is like 28 hours after I found out. That's not very good policy of informing parents of kids in a school where there's been a case." In an e-mail to O'Shea, John Langill, the superintendent of education for the Halton Catholic District School Board, noted that when it comes to communications from the schools to the parents the two school boards are required to wait for the Halton Region health department to ensure consistency and accuracy of information. Langill further noted the health department had been overwhelmed that day sending five or six letters to various parent communities. O'Shea is also calling on the board to institute stronger infection control measures at St. Luke to keep the virus from spreading. The current practices do not inspire confidence, he noted. "I kept my daughter out of school today and I'm not sure when we're going to send her back," he said. 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