Owen Maier ’20:
This winter, flu season has hit the Episcopal Academy hard. Many student and faculty absences have led to prolonged periods of missed work, compounding upon the already limited class time of the new schedule.
Mike Letts, Head of the Upper School, says the flu has definitely been more intense compared to prior seasons. He states, “Clearly it has impacted the students as well as the faculty and I think it has just placed a little more pressure on the students to try and just get healthy but also make up work that was missed. It just disrupts your flow and makes life more difficult on a number of fronts.” Apart from the students, Letts believes that the faculty have really been impacted by the flu season as well because it “puts more pressure on the members of the department to cover classes”.
One measure taken by the grounds crew was directed towards the disinfection of the campus. Mark Notaro, Director of Operations, says that the sanitation actually occurs once every winter in different areas, most of the time in the Lower School. However, this year, with the larger impact of the flu season, they decided to do “most of the larger spaces that the kids were in.” They used the “bomb,” a mass method of treatment, for more general areas, but for specific areas, a Clorox spray worked the best. Notaro says, “With this we’re able to target the classrooms and the desks where the kids sit.”
However, according to Nurse Anne Ravreby, this year has not been as impactful as previous years. She explains, “The flu season nationally has been bigger than maybe some years, but it’s not as heavy as it was back maybe five or six years ago” says Ravreby. She does however, believe that while there have been fewer cases at EA, each kid has been sicker when they do get the flu, saying, “They’ll get over the flu part, and then they get pneumonia.”
Ravreby believes that the good relationship with families’ healthcare providers and the increase in vaccinations contribute to why there are fewer flu cases. She notes that those with the flu should remain away from school, saying, “They feel that pressure to come back too soon so I’m really trying to encourage their parents to not worry about it.”
Still, students are worried about the missed class time and makeup work. Olivia Cunningham ‘18, says, “Missing a lot of school added stress to being sick because I would see all of the work piling up that I would have to make up once I got back. I was out for almost two weeks with the flu and two weeks with pneumonia and getting all of my work made up made my recovery very stressful.”
Yet, as difficult as making up work may be, Ravreby and Letts both insist that staying home is a precaution that must be taken.