Flu Scare Closes Local Schools

Two confirmed “swine flu” cases at Cambridge’s King Open School have not caused sufficient alarm to temporarily close the building, even as a multitude of suspected flu cases led city officials to close Boston Latin School, less than five miles away, for one week.

The two cases of swine flu—known officially as the H1N1 virus—were confirmed last Friday, according to Justin T. Martin, a spokesman for the Cambridge Public Schools. He added that four students at Cambridge Rindge and Latin School—the city’s only public high school—have displayed “flu-like symptoms.”

The school district’s Chief Operating Officer, Jim Maloney, said that shutting down King Open School, which is a K-8 school, was not necessary.

“The guidelines from CDC are that we don’t need to shut down the schools,” he said. “Every day this week we had greater than 80 percent of the students in attendance.”

In response to the cases, the school district has called parents to explain the situation, and on Friday the school sent letters home. Extra cleaning staff has been sent to the King Open School to provide additional sanitization, Martin said.

Maloney said that the district was trying to contain the epidemic by emphasizing that students be vigilant in their hand-washing and that parents monitor their children for signs of illness.

He added that it is difficult to contain such an illness to one building, as students share buses and go to after school programs at different schools.

But yesterday, just days after the report of these two cases, Boston Latin School students were let out five minutes early due to concerns about swine flu and two strains of seasonal flu.

Out of 2400 students who attend the 7-12 grade school, over 260 of them called in sick yesterday with flu-like symptoms, according to a press release from the office of Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino which was released yesterday afternoon.

According to a letter sent out by Boston Public Schools’ superintendent, Carol R. Johnson, the school was closed to “prevent new infections and avoid unnecessary illness”—a decision coming with the “guidance of the Boston Public Health commission.”

The 10th grade level MCAS math tests and all AP exams scheduled for this week have been postponed to next week, according to Johnson’s letter.

Additionally, the school’s junior prom, which was scheduled for this Friday, has been postponed “indefinitely,” said BLS senior Gloria T. Chin. She added that the seniors were supposed to end school this Friday, but they will now not finish school until the following week.

While Chin said she thought closing the school was “a smart thing to do,” not all students agreed. Chaofan Yuan, also a senior, said he found it annoying.

“I’d rather that they not cancel school,” he said. “I’m not that panicked about the disease.”

—Staff writer Sofia E. Groopman can be reached at segroopm@fas.harvard.edu.