Sanitary conditions at Briscoe questioned
By Marc Fortier
Staff writer
November 16, 2005
BEVERLY -- On the same day that administrators were urging Briscoe Middle School students to wash their hands to prevent the spread of hepatitis A, some bathrooms at the school had no hot water, no soap and no paper towels.
Most of the school bathrooms have never had hot water; they're not hooked up to the boiler. As for the soap and paper towels, Superintendent Jim Hayes said someone neglected to refill empty dispensers on Monday. They have since been refilled.
The situation came to light after Hayes sent a letter home to parents on Monday informing them of three confirmed cases of hepatitis A at the school in the past month. Most people who get the disease experience severe flu-like symptoms that pass in one to two weeks. It is rarely fatal.
But hand washing is key to preventing the spread of hepatitis A, which is passed when one person puts something in his or her mouth that has been contaminated with the waste of another person with the disease.
Hayes said he learned Monday during a staff discussion of the hepatitis outbreak that some of Briscoe's bathrooms had run out of soap and paper towels and that only two of the school's eight bathrooms have running hot water, making it difficult for the students to wash their hands after using the toilet.
"I wasn't aware," he said. "That was the first I'd heard of it."
Hayes said the soap and paper towel dispensers are filled daily, but apparently some ran out Monday. They have since been filled, and he said additional dispensers will be installed this week to ensure they are never empty.
"I don't know how that happens," he said. "It's a custodian's responsibility to stay on top of that. It should be taken care of, absolutely."
The hot water issue is tougher to fix. When the school was built in 1923, the water in the bathrooms was not hooked up to the boiler. The two bathrooms that do have hot water have their own hot water heaters.
Hayes said he asked his buildings and grounds chief to determine how much it would cost to bring hot water to all of the school's bathrooms. If it isn't too expensive, he plans to take that step.
Bill Burke, the city's health director, said the lack of hot water isn't a health issue because it wouldn't be hot enough to provide disinfection anyway. But he said there is no excuse for not having enough soap and paper towels.
"There should be soap and paper towels, obviously," he said. "The bottom line is they have to be properly stocked. Soap and paper towels in toilet rooms are basic sanitation. That's something the School Department will have to be diligent to maintain."
About 1,000 students attend the middle school, and Burke said no additional cases of the disease have been reported. The three students who have tested positive for the disease are friends, so it is believed they might have caught it from each other.
