Queens, NY – Queens Educator Critically Ill With Swine Flu; 3 Schools Closed

Queens, NY – In the first serious case of swine flu in New York City, an assistant principal of a Queens middle school has been hospitalized and is on a ventilator, officials announced Thursday. The city closed that school, and two others with large clusters of flu-like symptoms. All three schools are to remain closed through next week.

The assistant principal works at Intermediate School 238, in the Hollis section of Queens, and was said to have become critically ill. The authorities would not immediately disclose his name, but Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said at a City Hall news conference on Thursday evening that the educator “may have had other health problems” — “pre-existing conditions” that would have made him more vulnerable to the flu.

Swine flu has been documented in four other students at I.S. 238, at 88-15 182nd Street, and more than 50 students with flu-like symptoms have been sent home from the school since May 6, the mayor said.

Three public schools in Queens — the middle school where the assistant principal worked, as well as Intermediate School 5 in Elmhurst and Public School 16 in Corona — are being closed, effective Friday, because of the outbreak, officials said. The three schools together enroll some 4,500 students.

At I.S. 5, at 50-40 Jacobus Street, 241 students were absent from classes on Thursday. And at P.S. 16, 41-15 104th Street, 29 students reported flu-like symptoms at the nurse’s office on Thursday.

The three schools will be closed Friday and all of next week. “I regret the inconvenience but we think these measures are absolutely necessary,” the mayor said. “They demonstrate that our public health system is working effectively. We are acting as promptly as the evidence requires us to do.”

The mayor also said, “While the symptoms of H1N1 flu seem to resemble those of seasonal flu, the H1N1 virus seems to spread rapidly, so we’re closing these schools in order to slow transmission.”

Gov. David A. Paterson, who joined the mayor for the news conference at City Hall, urged the public “to remain alert rather than alarmed.” He said the assistant principal “is in our prayers.”

At I.S. 238, where the assistant principal worked, the building was shut at 4:35 p.m. and students taking part in after-school programs were directed to leave. Several students, interviewed early Thursday evening in the schoolyard by the basketball court, expressed concern.

Kvon Williams-Sparks, 13, an eighth grader, said he had noticed an increase in the frequency with which janitors were cleaning the bathrooms, and said the assistant principal had not been at work since Monday. “On Monday, I found a notice in the library that said, ‘If you are sick, you should stay home,’” Kvon said. “But nobody has otherwise talked to us.”

Another eighth-grader, Jonathan Rodriguez, 14, said he was told by a gym teacher that the school would be closed until May 21.

A seventh grader, Guillien Ishanga, 12, said that in his homeroom, “there are normally 31 kids, and this week we’ve had 11 kids absent. My brother was sick. My mom took him to the hospital and the doctor said it was a normal flu.” When asked whether his mother would keep him home, he said, “We would only follow what the doctor said.”

A crowd of three teachers, five police officers and two Department of Education officials stood outside the school; none would comment on the flu outbreak.

Public health authorities have been worried that public concern about the danger of the virus, officially known as A(H1N1), has waned.

As of Thursday morning, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had identified 4,298 confirmed and probable cases of swine flu in the United States, causing three deaths: two in Texas and one in Washington State.

Just days ago, the state health commissioner, Dr. Richard F. Daines, announced that the state would begin treating swine flu as it would begin to treat any ordinary seasonal flu, and that the state would decrease its level of testing and just look for new patterns.

The city’s health commissioner, Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, had also stopped giving daily updates on the progress of the flu.

Asked if the city had let its guard down too soon, Mr. Bloomberg replied: “Most people haven’t come down with it. You’ve got to remember, we’re talking about 4,500 students here in a city of 8.4 million. It may very well be that a lot of people have it and the symptoms are so minor that they don’t even know it. That’s one of the things we’ll be studying.”

The United Federation of Teachers, the city’s teachers’ union, said it was closely working with the Education and Health Departments and the mayor’s office. “We are very concerned for students and staff at all three schools as well as their families,” the union said in a statement. “We hope that the measures being taken to address the situation will alleviate the need for additional steps. We will continue to monitor the situation and we hope that everyone affected will make a quick recovery.”

Chiara Coletti, a spokeswoman for the Council of School Supervisors and Administrators, the city principals’ union, said in a statement: “Right now, we are doing all that we can to assist and support the family of our fellow union member who has fallen ill. We are deeply concerned about our students, their families, and the educators at all three schools and we will do everything we can for them.”