Second case of staph in U-46

Hillcrest Elementary School in Elgin became on Monday the second Elgin Area School District U-46 facility to report a case of a drug-resistant staph infection afflicting suburban schools.

"We did notify our staff and send home letters to parents," U-46 spokesman Tony Sanders said Monday.

Last week, the district confirmed a case of methyl-resistant staphlococcus aureus, or MRSA, at Canton Middle School in Streamwood.

Canton teachers complained Friday that they read about the presence of MRSA in their school in the Daily Herald before they heard about it from district officials.

Canton teachers called in union representatives for an impromptu meeting about the issue Friday.

At the same time, U-46 administrators were sending an informational letter home that alerted teachers and parents to the danger of MRSA, without mentioning that there had been a confirmed case in a district school.

"Individual cases of MRSA will occur but are not considered an outbreak," U-46 Sanders said. "We will be following the Center for Disease Control and local health department guidelines when handling individual cases."

According to the Illinois Department of Public Health, it is not necessary for schools to inform the entire school community about a single MRSA infection.

"When MRSA occurs within the school population, the school nurse and school physician should determine, based on the specific situation, whether some or all parents and staff should be notified," a department statement said.

At Friday's after-school meeting, teachers expressed concerns about their health, the adequacy of the district's cleaning efforts and poor communication, Elgin Teachers Association President Tim Davis said Monday.

By the end of the meeting, the district had -- belatedly -- addressed those concerns, Davis said.

"The district was scrambling to respond to its first MRSA situation. To their credit, when they addressed the teachers at Canton, they weren't defensive," Davis said. "They admitted that the system had let them down by not being adequately prepared."

MRSA spreads through skin-to-skin contact and shared personal items such as towels and razors.

In the past week, cases of MRSA have been reported at schools in Bellwood, Gurnee, Huntley, Joliet Township, Lincolnshire, Naperville, North Aurora, Rolling Meadows, Schiller Park, West Aurora and Woodstock.