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To: Mt. SAC Faculty and Staff
From: Virginia Burley, Vice
President of Instruction
Audrey
Yamagata-Noji, Vice President of Student Services
Subject: Students with flu-like
symptoms
You have all no doubt heard numerous reports in the news regarding the
flu that has caused such alarm across the nation. Regardless of your personal
response to the news reports and warnings, we need to address the concerns of
students in our classrooms using some common guidelines (and hopefully using
some common sense as well). Your students will look to you for leadership in
responding to potential problems related to the issue of persons who appear to
be ill.
Please use the following guidelines when faced with flu concerns in your
classrooms:
- Students cannot be excluded from classroom attendance strictly
due to isolated respiratory symptoms such as a cough or runny nose. It is important
to distinguish between isolated symptoms like these and illness.
- If a student
is exhibiting a high fever (over 100 degrees), along with a cough, chills, sore
throat, body aches, fatigue, headaches or diarrhea and vomiting, you may ask
that they go to the Student Health Center or to their private doctor for evaluation.
Someone this sick is unlikely to come to school, but if a student is clearly
ill, it is best that they stay home. Please consider giving these students the
opportunity to make up work they miss during the illness.
- Current guidelines
from the Centers for Disease Control recommend that individuals remain home for
24 hours after a fever is gone without the use of medication.
- Questions and
concerns related to class attendance issues are to be directed to your division
dean. Please remember that students may be very anxious about the news reports
they hear and need support in developing a positive course of action if they
are ill.
- Remember that Public Safety officers are not authorized to forcefully
remove "sick" students from the classroom unless there is a violation
of the "Student Standards of Conduct.”
Please check the Mt. SAC website
regularly to access updates to the flu epidemic. We ask that you remain calm
and seek authoritative information from the many sources that are available.
The Health and Safety Committee is working closely with College officials to
keep our campus as safe and healthy as possible. Thank you.
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