New hand sanitizers dispensers are being installed in schools across the Eastern School District this month.
The dispensers are being added to cafeterias, lobbies, computer labs and some classrooms.
Classrooms in elementary schools will be the first to get the sanitizers, because it is harder to teach younger grades how to prevent spreading germs properly.
They cannot go to the bathroom to wash their hands everytime they sneeze, said Sandy Macdonald, superintendant of the Eastern School Board.
“They wouldn’t get anything done.”
Two dispensers have been installed in Colonel Grey, but there are a number of privately owned bottles, said Kevin Whitrow, Colonel Grey’s principal.
Charlottetown Rural has a similar situation.
“Many teachers have sanitizer in their classrooms and have this for some time. It is available in offices and in the cafeteria,” said principal Susan Willis.
Using hand sanatizers and other methods of germ preventions seems to be helping attendance records in the Eastern School District.
The absentee rate, as of Oct. 7, was .30 per cent due to influenza like symptoms. It has been more than 20 per cent rate in the past, said MacDonald.
But the school board is not going to turn a blind eye to the possibility of the flu hitting schools.
“We’re prepared if anything happens”
Still, there have been rumors of students drinking the hand sanitizer, and lighting it on fire.
It may be suburban myth and there have been no reports of that happening here, said MacDonald.
“We have not had any problems with hand sanitizers being misused,” said Willis.
Colonel Grey hasn’t had any issues either, said Whitrow.
But the school board is prepared to deal with the situation if it does arise.
“If we do catch a student doing this, they will be suspended,” said MacDonald.
