At an afternoon press conference June 15, 2009 at 2:30 PM at Carlsbad’s Pacific Ridge School Dr. Eileen Mullady, the Head of the School, (pictured right) and Rick Sapp, Chair of the school’s Board of Trustees, gave reporters an update on the 35 students and seven faculty members who are currently being held in swine flu quarantine in Yichang, China after several students and teacher got sick during their 13-day educational tour:
Since the evaluations on June 11, we have nine students and two teachers currently in a hospital in the city of Yichang undergoing further evaluation. Our remaining 26 students and five teachers are quarantined in a nearby hotel. We have been told that seven people [six students and one teacher] have tested positive for H1N1 on the initial screenings and they are recovering. Our teachers have informed us that in the last 24 hours, there have been no additional confirmed cases of H1N1 in our group.
Unfortunately, Mullady did not know when the students and teachers would return home. “We could have students out of quarantine by the end of the week.”
For Dr. Mullady’s entire statement (and photos) follow the jump or click here to watch the video.
The following is Dr. Eileen Mullady’s prepared statement:
I would like to thank you all for being here and for you show of concern for our students. The goal of this meeting is to present the facts as we know them regarding our students educational enrichment trip to China. It is our hope that we can all rally behind these students and teachers and lend them support while we await their return home.
At Pacific Ridge School, a part of our mission is to prepare students for experiences outside of our community. We’re not along in this mission; high schools across the country involve students in study abroad programs, and increasingly so in our global community.
Regarding our 9th grad class trip to China, what we know is as follows: on June 2, 2009, San Diego time, 35 students and seven teachers departed to Beijing, China, as part of the global education curriculum at Pacific Ridge School.
Upon arriving in Beijing, our students took part in a variety of activities and sightseeing, including a climb on the Great Wall, a visit to the Forbidden City, and then on to the terra cotta warriors in the city of Xi’an, an the traditional tourist river cruise to the Three Gorges Dam. This is the same trip we took with the 9th graders last year.
On Thursday, June 11, 2009, on the river cruise, three of our students and one teacher showed mild signs of illness and saw the doctor aboard ship. In accordance with the Chinese government and World Health Organization H1N1 protocols and in the best interest of the students, upon docking, the students and teacher were taken to a nearby hospital for further medical evaluations.
Since the evaluations on June 11, we have nine students and two teachers currently in a hospital in the city of Yichang undergoing further evaluation. Our remaining 26 students and five teachers are quarantined in a nearby hotel. We have been told that seven people have tested positive for H1N1 on the initial screenings and they are recovering. Our teachers have informed us that in the last 24 hours, there have been no additional confirmed cases of H1N1 in our group. The hospital has been most accommodating to our students, and our staff is in direct communication with the president of the hospital, as well as attending physicians. Our students are comfortable, safe and in good spirits. They are able to receive phone calls from home and they pass the time by playing charades with one another through the glass windows of their rooms.
In the hotel, each student and teacher has his or her owner room with a TV, phone and computer, as well as novelty shower slippers. The hotel staff has graciously responded to our requests and has been taking excellent care of our students and teachers, making food runs to the local restaurants and providing bottled water, chocolates and soft drinks. The students are comfortable and safe and spend their days doing various different activities sucks as talking on the phone, reading books, writing in journals, doing crossword puzzles, watching volleyball and ping-pong, and inventing new ways to exercises without leaving the room.
We are pleased to report that our students are in communication with their families and friends daily. Our Pacific Ridge staff here in Carlsbad is in direct communication with the Chinese health authorities (CDC), U.S. Embassy in Beijing, and the president and physicians at the hospital and we are pleased with the level of cooperation and responsiveness to our concerns. We communicate daily with parents, students and faculty to keep the lines of communication open and share the latest, most accurate information with all parties involved.
What we do not know at this point is exactly when our students and teachers will be returning home. We could have students out of quarantine by the end of the week.
In the meantime, our focus remains on the health and well-being of every Pacific Ridge student, parents, family, faculty and staff member. Our parents and families are extremely supportive and cooperative and understand their role is to remain calm and provide reassurance to their children. An event such as this obviously concerns us all, but it also brings us together and we’re so pleased with the cooperation and outpouring of support form the community.
Pacific Ridge School Board of Trustees chairman Rick Sapp, whose 15-year-old daughter is one of the students currently quarantined, says his daughter is doing fine and that he has been able to speak with her on the phone whenever he wants to.
Reporters covering the press conference asked for the schools permission to do their live segments from the schools property. If you still watch TV check them out tonight.
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