Oct 25, 2007 5:17 pm US/Central
'Superbug' Shuts Down Aurora Elementary School
School To Reopen Friday After Officials Disinfect Building
AURORA, Ill. (CBS) ―
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Holy Angels School in Aurora was shut down Thursday after officials after someone at the school or church contracted MRSA.
CBS
For the first time in the Chicago area, classes have been canceled at an elementary school after someone came down with a case of MRSA.
CBS 2's West Suburban Bureau Chief Mike Puccinelli reports that the so-called "superbug" scare happened at Holy Angels School on Kensington Place in Aurora.
There were no classes at Holy Angels School on Thursday you can blame it on the so-called "superbug."
Principal Norb Rozanski said, "We had a case reported to us yesterday (Wednesday) that a member of our community had MRSA so to be on the safe side, even though Kane County told us we didn't have to do this, we closed the school.
Rozanski won't say if it is a member of the school or church who contracted the anti-biotic resistant bacteria, but he did say that faculty members spent the day using detergents to disinfect every wall, floor, desktop and bathroom in the school.
"Wiping down everything that the kids use and sanitizing everything as best we can," Rozanski said.
Students should report back to class Friday.
"It's a serious disease, but not anything to get into a panic about," Rozanski said.
That may be true, but to Melissa Weis it's a disease she'd never heard of until it killed her son last August.
"Honestly we miss him every day," Weis said. Her son, Mark, was about to enter the 8th grade at his Naperville school when he contracted the drug resistant staph infection while being treated in the hospital for bone cancer.
"A thirteen year old that's active and happy and playing with his brother in Florida," Weis said. "How do you go from that to this?"
Now she knows it's because of the equal opportunity destroyer known as MRSA.
"It's really sad because it could have been prevented," Weis said. That's why she's advocating a national law forcing hospital staffers to test for the drug resistant staph infection, so that other mothers won't have to live her nightmare.
Letters will go out to parents Friday to tell them what to look for and to tell them the steps that have been taken to clean up the school.
(CBS 2, the Naperville Sun and the Aurora Beacon-News are news partners covering stories in the western suburbs. Send story tips to tips@cbs2chicago.com. (© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting, Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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