Classes resume in Weathersfield after precaution

There was a discussion with the CDC before schools were reopened.
By MARY SMITH
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
MINERAL RIDGE -- Debra Chiody said she would send her fifth-grade daughter, Kianna Cameron, to school today, but not without precautions.
She won't allow her daughter to ride the bus because the middle and high school pupils ride together.
Also, she'll pack her daughter's lunch because a member of the Mineral Ridge High School band who went to Toronto last week works in the cafeteria occasionally.
"Maybe I'm overreacting. I'd rather overreact than let my child get sick," she said.
"I expect my daughter to be protected at school just as she's protected at home."
As classes resumed today in the Weathersfield School District after a one-day shutdown Monday, Chiody questioned why, despite the publicity about severe acute respiratory syndrome in Toronto, parents would allow their children to go on the trip anyway.
Change in policy
The trip to Canada amid an outbreak of the deadly SARS has resulted in a change in the school district's field trip policy.
Superintendent Rocco Adduci said Monday he is sending a letter to all activity sponsors indicating that any time a trip is planned, the board will have to approve it or the superintendent will have to know about it.
Adduci canceled classes Monday at the request of two school board members.
Classes were to resume today after Adduci consulted with the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta.
Twenty-five band pupils in grades seven through 12 made the three-day trip last week to Toronto and Niagara Falls, along with 14 parents, teachers and the school nurse.
Monday was the district's fifth and final calamity day allowed for the 2002-03 school year, Adduci said. If school districts take more than five calamity days during one school year, the time must be made up.
Adduci said the World Health Organization has issued travel advisories for Toronto and several Asian countries, but the CDC operates on a two-tier scale, which has Toronto on the second tier, and has not restricted travel to Canada.
Onset of symptoms can be as early as 72 hours after exposure.
SARS has infected an estimated 5,000 worldwide, and there are at least 333 deaths attributed to the illness.
Adduci said school nurse Kim Brunton was to be at all schools today to monitor pupils for any fever or other symptoms of SARS.
The pupils were told to contact the school nurse if they display any symptoms.
The band boosters chartered their own bus and used their own money for the Canada trip, Adduci said, adding that 25 percent of the pupils who signed up for the trip backed out.
"If I was in control, I would have canceled the trip," Adduci said.
Since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the superintendent and board have canceled annual trips for eighth-graders to Washington.
Pupils instead have traveled around Ohio, and a trip to Gettysburg and possibly Hershey, Pa., is planned this year.
During last week's trip, band pupils stayed at the Sheraton Four Points Hotel in Toronto, and visited the Medieval Times, the Science Center, the CN Tower, the Butterfly Conservatory, an Imax Theater and the Sklylon Tower.