Local headteacher slammed for failing to inform parents of Meningitis cases

15 Jan Local headteacher slammed for failing to inform parents of Meningitis cases

A local headteacher has been slammed for failing to inform parents of Meningitis cases.

Laurel Lane Primary School’s Head Teacher failed to inform Parents for five days, after two confirmed cases of Meningitis.

On Friday 5th January they suspected meningitis and had it confirmed on Sunday 7th. There was another case on Monday the 8th. Parents were not informed until Wednesday 10th.

Eight children were sent home on Monday 8th with sickness. Another 21 children were off School on the 10th January.

A parent Aleah Leigh told us “I decided to keep my two children off School due to the fact that I was not happy with the Teacher’s claim that meningitis was not contagious.”

Leigh added “On an earlier visit to the school for a project of making Christmas decorations which included paining and gluing. My daughter, who is five years old, got into quite a mess, as children do. I took her to the washroom to clean her up, when I go there, there was no soap or hand get in the dispensers. My daughter Olivia, said, ‘they never have any’. This is basic hygiene and it is the main reason in aiding the spread of infection.”

Another matter raised with the headteacher was the School’s policy of cleaning up animal waste in the playground.

Leigh told us “When I asked about this, their reply to my complaint was that it is highlighted by placing a chair over the waste and it is cleaned up at the earliest convenience. When in fact it is left until enough children have walked in it. I have documented images of waste that had remained in the playground for three weeks. It was never cleaned up in that time.”

Diseases you can get from animal waste include

• Whipworms

• Hookworms

• Roundworms

• Tapeworms

• Parvo

• Corona

• Giardiasis

• Salmonellosis

• Cryptosporidiosis

• Campylobacteria’s