Margie Robben

It has come to my attention that many children from different schools got sick this week or the days immediately following. Mononucleosis is being reported. I was privileged to be invited to attend one of these events but decided not to go indoors where the event was taking place and stayed outside, which was difficult enough.

I checked on things as the one-hour event proceeded. There was no air conditioning or fans inside the auditorium. Hundreds of parents, siblings and grandparents were huddled together with an indoor temperature in the nineties. A group of women were outside setting up 500 bottles of water. Several people leaving the auditorium early went up to the table for water and they were asked, “Is the graduation over yet?” suggesting that no water would be given out unless the graduation was completed.

The graduating students were sitting on an elevated stage in the auditorium with hot lights beaming down on them. I could not believe what was going on. At the time I was convinced that the kids and their parents were in a perfect setting for testing their immune system.

It is now about the middle of July, and I have heard several stories about people fainting during a school event in different schools during the final days of school and of children getting mono. It is difficult to make a case about the results of the last week of school and correcting it so it doesn’t happen again without knowing the full story. If there is a story, it should be told.

I am sure the Board of Education would like to know if a serious problem occurred because of the heat and putting children at risk for illness in closed and hot quarters, but there has to be proof by a compiling of facts and figures.

I would like to ask parents to e-mail me with their observations and/or if their child or anyone else got sick during this time, the dates of the illness, and the diagnosis of the illness. All information would remain confidential.

Marge Robben – mbrobben@aol.com