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25
Commonly, the failure of carefully considered measures of
exclusion to stay the spread of an epidemic which shows a
special incidence upon school children, may be regarded as
pointing to the continued attendance at school of children with
the prevalent disease in a mild or unrecognised form, and a
strong case will appear for the closing of schools.
If by reason of the absence or exclusion of a large number of
children, the attendance at a school be greatly reduced, it may
be found better to close it altogether. This is especially apt
to occur in the case of epidemics of measles, a disease which
is very infectious in the early stages, before the characteristic
rash has appeared, and while the symptoms resemble those of
a common cold."
Section 11 points out that, as a rule, closing a school in a
sparsely populated rural district, where the children of different
households, or of separate hamlets, rarely meet except at, or
on their way to, the village sohool, the closing of the school is
likely to be effectual in checking the spread of disease. It is
less likely to be useful in a town, or compact village (particularly
where houses are sub-let and yards are in common),
where the children of different households when not at school
spend their time in playing together, or running in and out of
each other's houses.
Section 13 deals with the duty of the Medical Officer of
Health in reporting such cases to the Local Government Board,
and the grounds for the action he has taken in the matter.
Section 14 states: "All notices of the sanitary authority for
the closing of Public Elementary Schools should be addressed
in writing to the Managers, and should state the grounds on
which the closing is deemed necessary.
All such notices shall specify a definite time during which
the school is to remain closed; this should be as short a period
as can be regarded as sufficing on sanitary grounds, since a
second notice may be given before the expiration of the first,
if it should be found necessary to postpone the re-opening of a
school. The Managers of schools, after complying with the
requirements of the sanitary authority, have the right of appeal
to the Education Department, if they consider any notice to
be unreasonable."
The Public Health Committee ordered that copies of the
above Memorandum be procured and supplied to the Managers
of each of the Elementary Schools in the district.
Copies were accordingly sent to the Managers of seventeen
Elementary Schools in the United Parishes.