On Thursday, Feb. 9, Head of School Thomas Dillow announced that school would be closing after 1:30 p.m., and would remain closed through the weekend. This announcement was due to the gastroenteritis illness spreading rapidly throughout the Kingswood Oxford community.
Gastroenteritis is a type of norovirus that is very contagious and causes vomiting and diarrhea. It causes inflammation of the stomach or intestines (called acute gastroenteritis). A person usually develops symptoms 12 – 48 hours after being exposed to norovirus and recovers from the virus within one to three days. One gets norovirus by eating food, drinking liquids, touching surfaces and objects that are contaminated with norovirus, or by having direct contact with someone who is infected with norovirus.
This illness was first brought to the school’s attention on Wednesday, Feb. 8. “We started to see a trend on that Wednesday with students coming to the health center presenting with the same symptoms: stomach ache, nausea,” Nurse Beth Scully said. “We later found out that their symptoms turned into vomiting and diarrhea.” On Thursday there was a major increase of students out sick which was brought to attention by Upper School Administrative Coordinator Lindsay Perkins.
The health department was soon contacted to let them know about the high number of students out sick. Based on the information, the health department suspected that the norovirus was going around the school. Therefore, they highly recommended that students were dismissed early on Thursday and to close the school for the weekend.
Ending school early and closing it down on Friday allowed the school to be deep-cleaned. The cleaning staff cleaned with bleach-based products to ensure that the virus didn’t linger on any surfaces. “KO has also implemented extra cleaning precautions throughout the day,” Nurse Scully said. “Lunch tables and desks are cleaned with a cleansing solution after each use. Bathrooms are cleaned four times a day. Areas that are touched often such as door handles are continuously cleaned during the school day.”
School closing early on Thursday and having Friday off allowed for a deep clean and an opportunity for students to recover from the norovirus. “We had a large number of students and staff out sick and I think that closing school briefly really helped slow the spreading down and hopefully we’ll be done with it totally and very soon,” Dean of Students Kata Baker said.
Students also agree that this was beneficial. “As someone who had the norovirus, I’m really glad school was closed for a day because it allowed me to recover, and I think it helped reduce the number of people who got sick as well,” sophomore Clara Drag said.
While the norovirus hit the KO community hard and fast, the right calls were made to ensure the student’s safety and well-being.
