I am posting this to see what your views are about my specific situation here in North Texas. I live in a small community just north of Denton Tx named Sanger. which is 30 miles from Dallas and Ft. Worth. As the world already knows Ft. Worth closed thier entire school district after only one confirmed case of h1n1 while Dallas took another approach only closing schools with confirmed cases. Denton did a mix of both, they closed only two schools last week and over the weekend decided to close the entire district. Lewisville just South of Denton closed the entire district, Ponder just West of Denton and Sanger closed the entire district, Gainsville just North of Sanger closed thier district. We are in the middle of a circle of closed schools while our entire district is still functioning as normal with the exception of Field Trips, Etc. being cancelled.
I watched the news all weekend expecting our schools to close but they didn't. Last Friday I looked at the Sanger Independent School District website which had a posting stating that "No Students or Employee has had a confirmed case of h1n1 but we are keeping a close watch for it and will follow CDC recomendations as far as school closings are concerned."( not an exact quote but as close to word for word as I can recall) I decided not to send my son to school today to help lessen his risk of exposure, knowing that there could be issues with truency that come up due to unexcused absences. When I got to work and have acess to internet today I decided to look at the SISD website again for updates and found this:

Sanger Independent School District
Flu Update May 4

As of Monday, May 04, 2009, no confirmed cases of H1N1 (swine flu) have been reported in Sanger I.S.D. Currently, those parents who have taken their children to be tested for Influenza A have been told that their children have viral or upper-respiratory illnesses, with one exception. One SISD student has tested positive for Influenza A, but could not be tested for H1N1 because the student was given Tamiflu, which will mask the test results.

School officials remain in close contact with Denton County health officials and neighboring school districts.

Please be assured that the safety and well-being of all of our students and staff remains our top priority.

Campus administrators have been advised that any student who misses school due to illness during this time will automatically be granted “excused” absences from school. If you wish to keep your child at home, as a parent, that is your decision and the District recognizes that fact.


If the health department recommends we close school, we will follow the same procedures we use when closing school for inclement weather.
Television
WFAA, Channel 8
KXAS, Channel 5
KXII, Channel 12
KTVT, Channel 11
Radio Stations
WBAP, 820 AM
Parents may call the District administration office at 458-7438 or check this website for the most current information.

This tells me there are sick kids at our school and they have decided to continue to put more at risk. I know it says I can keep my son out but does not specify for how long or if will affect his grades, ability to graduate, or even if he can complete the work he is missing while I have him out.

Why do we have to wait until it is "Confirmed" that they are at risk when it is obvious the risk is already there (a student did test positive for Influenza A). Are days closed so expensive to the District that the health of students comes in second when compared to Dollar values? Would prevention by non-exposure not be a better avenue of approach than waiting until it is "Confirmed" our kids have been exposed then sending them home to hope they didn't get infected and don't infect the rest of our family? Am I completly out of line for calling them out as Stupid, and Greedy for this continuious risk taking behavior? Do you think this decision is being based on Money more than health also?



[edit on 4-5-2009 by wastedown]

Well you can decide whatever you want. Its your kid. From what I have seen this flu strain is no worse than the regular flu, so would you take your kid out of school every year during the entire school year when the ordinary flu is active? It might actually be better to catch it now so your bodies can learn to fight it off before it turns more deadly. So maybe by keeping your kid home you are setting him up to die in the fall. Who knows?

[edit on 4-5-2009 by justsomeboreddude]

State and Federal Dollars? The answer is zero.

Please take responsibility and take care of your own family. Rely on the govt as little as possible. This goes for everyone. Have some savings, make an action plan, do what people did before the govt got enormous and out of control.

Also do you really believe a conspiracy site is the best place to get advice on this. If you get enough people to view this thread then eventually you will get a bunch of loons on here that will say you should never let your kid go to school again because:
1. The flu
2. The NWO will brain wash them
3. Aliens may abduct them on the way home
4. Those who orchestrated 911 will fly a fake plane/missle/bomb into your kids school
5. There is no need to go to school if we would just become communists the government would get your kid its own personal teacher that would teach him at your home, because its his God given right to have whatever he wants/needs/imagines and so if we would all just give all of our money to the government all our dreams would come true and the whole world would turn into one giant version of DisneyLand.

In a nutshell, maybe you should ask some of the other parents in your school district and your husband or some other male figure. Its good to balance out the female protective instinct with the male we are all indestructable instinct.

Originally posted by justsomeboreddude
Also do you really believe a conspiracy site is the best place to get advice on this. If you get enough people to view this thread then eventually you will get a bunch of loons on here that will say you should never let your kid go to school again because:
1. The flu
2. The NWO will brain wash them
3. Aliens may abduct them on the way home
4. Those who orchestrated 911 will fly a fake plane/missle/bomb into your kids school
5. There is no need to go to school if we would just become communists the government would get your kid its own personal teacher that would teach him at your home, because its his God given right to have whatever he wants/needs/imagines and so if we would all just give all of our money to the government all our dreams would come true and the whole world would turn into one giant version of DisneyLand.

In a nutshell, maybe you should ask some of the other parents in your school district and your husband or some other male figure. Its good to balance out the female protective instinct with the male we are all indestructable instinct.

Though I don't recall ever seeing any of your list being refered to a reason to keep kids from school, I think your "in a nutshell" section should have just said "GET A GRIP".

I honestly don't care what anyone thinks of my decision to pull my child from school and that's not what this post is about. I believe that we need to get sick from time to time to build immunities and prefer that route to vaccines. I am not brainwashed by the Media, when the CDC & the W.H.O. say there is signifigant risk in fact enough to list it at a level 5 which correct me if I'm wrong has not been done in any of our lifetimes, you would be stupid not to be a little concerned.
Again I know how things get sensationalized and completly blown out of perportion but my point is my son's school is in a circle of closed districts yet his is still open. I am asking if people think it is right for the school to make the decision to stay open based on economic reasons. In my OP I quoted the SISD as saying "School officials remain in close contact with Denton County health officials and neighboring school districts." when all of the surrounding districts are closed. Not only that but we have a "confirmed" influenza A case in our school. SO.... do you think this decision is based on money more than health? That is the real point of this post. My son is NOT going to school by my choice but in light of what other districts are doing around us are our schools making thier decision on the economics more that anything else.
Flame on..... don't care I stand behind my decision based on being a medical proffesional and a caring parent not a tin foil hat wearing crazy.

Originally posted by justsomeboreddude
Also do you really believe a conspiracy site is the best place to get advice on this. If you get enough people to view this thread then eventually you will get a bunch of loons on here that will say you should never let your kid go to school again because:
1. The flu
2. The NWO will brain wash them
3. Aliens may abduct them on the way home
4. Those who orchestrated 911 will fly a fake plane/missle/bomb into your kids school
5. There is no need to go to school if we would just become communists the government would get your kid its own personal teacher that would teach him at your home, because its his God given right to have whatever he wants/needs/imagines and so if we would all just give all of our money to the government all our dreams would come true and the whole world would turn into one giant version of DisneyLand.

In a nutshell, maybe you should ask some of the other parents in your school district and your husband or some other male figure. Its good to balance out the female protective instinct with the male we are all indestructable instinct.

I am the Husband and I have spoken to other parents and they are getting mad also, my sons class was reduced by about 50% on Friday due to absence.

[edit on 4-5-2009 by wastedown]

Do any of you have children of your own? If so do you even care? I can say honestly - no - I do not care, but just because some of you feel that you have everything figured out, doesn't make you the prophets of the times.

You can predict what the media is lying about all you want, but the fact is they are lying. You don't know WHAT they are lying about. First they are over hyping the cases and now they have virtually no coverage at all. Whose to say that the numbers aren't being cover up?

Also, who's to say that whatever the case is that is causing the deaths in Mexico, couldn't become the case in the United States, especially in a state bordering like Texas.

If a school says that there is a chicken pox outbreak in school, and you child has not had them, do you send your child anyway? If influenza is ok, how far would you go? What if there was a case of ebola in the school. It hasn't killed anyone yet but it has been over hyped by the media. I guess that because you are so hardcore patriot against the media, that you send your child anyway.


The logic that is missing is those that are so far "awake" that they seem to forget that not everything is about a conspiracy, that at some point human life and compassion comes into play. If it was an outbreak of the normal flu, I would definitely consider sending MY child to school, especially if he/she wasn't vaccinated.

If it was a strain of flu that has already been proven that humans don't have an immunity against? What the hell is the problem here? What you big anti-media people are forgetting is the no immunity part. Yes, in an entire year many more people are infected by the flu. But look at the numbers now. Thousands affected in a matter of weeks. You take those same statistics and stretch them over a year and guess what? You just beat your flew statistics. Especially if they increase exponentially.

It doesn't matter if the chance of dying is slim, you should realize that some people have enough compassion for their family, especially their children, that they wouldn't care if it was a known 1% or 100% chance of dying, they would do whatever they can to protect them.






To complain about someone who stocks up on a years supply of food, buys out the drug stores gas masks, and goes on sprees telling people it is the end of the world, that is one thing.

Telling a person they are wrong for trying to protect their child. That is another thing and sorry to say sir, but now - you are wrong.

Thank you and good day.

Originally posted by gwydionblack
Do any of you have children of your own? If so do you even care? I can say honestly - no - I do not care, but just because some of you feel that you have everything figured out, doesn't make you the prophets of the times.

You make contradictory statements in the same paragraph. And this thread has nothing to do with caring about your child, it has to do with pointless hysteria.

You can predict what the media is lying about all you want, but the fact is they are lying. You don't know WHAT they are lying about. First they are over hyping the cases and now they have virtually no coverage at all. Whose to say that the numbers aren't being cover up?

Again, please refrain from using contradictory statements as it makes discussion on a discussion forum, rather difficult. Predict all you want that they are lying? The fact is, theyre lying?

Ok, well thanks for proving that to yourself and everyone else on the forum. When were you planning on making a point? And the coverage is still going strong as far as I am concerned.

Also, who's to say that whatever the case is that is causing the deaths in Mexico, couldn't become the case in the United States, especially in a state bordering like Texas.

If a school says that there is a chicken pox outbreak in school, and you child has not had them, do you send your child anyway? If influenza is ok, how far would you go? What if there was a case of ebola in the school. It hasn't killed anyone yet but it has been over hyped by the media. I guess that because you are so hardcore patriot against the media, that you send your child anyway.

Flu's naturally die every summer, guess what season it is. And why are you supporting a pointless argument with even more pointless analogies? I've never heard of a school being shutdown for chicken pox, let alone entire states shutting schools. So I think the comparison is pointless really.

This has killed 1 person in the US, which was a sick infant not even from the US. If you were able to read between the lines, this isn't the pandemic, this was just a warm up. Essentially it was just conditioning. And as usual ignorant Americans gobbled it up. Just like this forum, every bit of garbage the MSN spewed was gobbled up on this forum, and that fact alone proves how well the media strategy worked.

The logic that is missing is those that are so far "awake" that they seem to forget that not everything is about a conspiracy, that at some point human life and compassion comes into play. If it was an outbreak of the normal flu, I would definitely consider sending MY child to school, especially if he/she wasn't vaccinated.

Again with the contradiction. So if its the absolutely lame swine flu, you don't send your kids to school, but if its the regular flu which kills on average 100 people every day - that's ok, send the kids off? Especially if they aren't vaccinated? Just what is your stance?

If you're a good parent you wouldn't be vaccinating your kids for anything.

If it was a strain of flu that has already been proven that humans don't have an immunity against? What the hell is the problem here? What you big anti-media people are forgetting is the no immunity part. Yes, in an entire year many more people are infected by the flu. But look at the numbers now. Thousands affected in a matter of weeks. You take those same statistics and stretch them over a year and guess what? You just beat your flew statistics. Especially if they increase exponentially.

It doesn't matter if the chance of dying is slim, you should realize that some people have enough compassion for their family, especially their children, that they wouldn't care if it was a known 1% or 100% chance of dying, they would do whatever they can to protect them.

Ok, thousands of people affected, on the entire planet, the numbers are fairly stable and no one is dying except for Mexicans. When we say 36000 people die each year from the flu, that's in JUST THE US, the other 6 billion people on the planet aren't even factored in.

I think it's pretty safe to assume that 100,000 people MINIMUM die from the regular good ol' flu each year. Which, even though we may have some immunity to, kills exponentially more people.

To complain about someone who stocks up on a years supply of food, buys out the drug stores gas masks, and goes on sprees telling people it is the end of the world, that is one thing.

Telling a person they are wrong for trying to protect their child. That is another thing and sorry to say sir, but now - you are wrong.

Thank you and good day.

Ok well, what you brainiacs fail to realize is that you have a false belief that you're seriously protecting your child. There's so many different things you could do to protect your child, perhaps from 1 of the 1000 other things that could potentially kill them, and are exponentially more likely to occur, than swine flu.

So, keep your blissful ignorance, get your daily dose of MSN fear, and enjoy your life, and good luck to your kids.

I could argue my points to kingdom come and you would still throw the fact that they are "lying and scaremongering" in my face as if it is the end all be all of the argument.

The great thing about all of this, and generally the interesting thing about "conspiracy" is the fact that we don't know if they are necessarily true. If we did, they wouldn't be conspiricies... they would be out right facts.

You throw your opinion on the scaremongering and media zealotry around like yours is the only one the matters. Like somehow you gained insider knowledge as to what exactly is going on. You remind me of some of the weekly bloggers who make videos explaining how they "know things" that everyone else doesn't, only they are normal people like you and me. Carousing the internet looking for "proof" of the next big thing.

But what you aren't realizing is the fact that this topic, goes well beyond just the topic of the media and how paranoid. It goes to the point where you believe in something so much, that you are telling people to risk their family's life on it, when there is just as much risk that they are right and YOU are wrong.

Its all a matter of YOU throwing YOUR beliefs around as fact, and hoping that people will bite on and follow you or something. Obviously, by the fact that you post your statistics in just about every topic, it isn't working.

You can throw cancer, the common cold, shingles, herpes, smallpox, influenza, swine flu, car accidents, smoke inhalation, ect all into a situation and claim that one is more riskier then the other but the fact is THEY ARE ALL RISKY.

When you are a parent, you will not send your child, KNOWINGLY into ANY kind of risky situation.


And what you continually seem to undermind, is the natural defenses against ALL of the statistics you list. Cancer may take years to develop. Being hit by a car can be avoided if you pay better attention. The normal flu we have immunities to. We as a specie have figured out the ways to avoid the risks of some of these things. Are their risks involved? Sure. Are their stupid people that get themselves in danger of these things? Always. Does luck play a pretty big part in it? You bet your bottom dollar.

What you don't understand is that we are dealing with something in the realm of the unknown. Human beings are curious of the unknown. When they start to mess around with the unknown and it does something they don't like, they become afraid of the unknown. Has the media escalated well over the proportions it should have been? Yes. But does that make it any less of a concern, so much that we should ignore it and throw our loved ones in its path just to prove that wrong?

H to the ELL no. You can debate the fact all you want but it is simply instinct to protect ones young from a known source of danger and that is what this is- plain and simple.

It's your child and it's your call. Don't let people guilt you into feeling bad about your decision, whatever you choose. Call your school counselor or principal if you have concerns about how it will affect his grades. I'm sure they have ideas as to how you can work through an long absence. Teachers can give make-up work and your son can do his studies at home. If he is to graduate this year it will be more of a challenge. It is no crime to get an"Incomplete" and finish at a later date. God knows, it happened in this household and no one is worse for wear because of it. Best advice is to err on the side of caution - and to answer your post question - you little one is priceless, of course.

Your child isn't in the age group that usually has a problem any more than they would with any other flu.

YOU on the other hand are in an age group that is more likely to have a problem.

King.... What you are failing to see is your own "delusional logic". You keep going on about media brainwashing and how this is all just blown up hype & I'm buying into it. Well, for your informantion I do NOT watch, CNN, MSM, BBC, World Nightly News or any other "Mainstream" news shows. I get the info in this thread from local news channels (that have now moved on to the Cowboys Collapse) and there is a constant ticker going by the bottom of the screen showing school closures, and if you noticed directly from my son's school district website. Notice I siad only local news stations in the DFW area so I can only speak of what is happening here, leaving the other parts of Texas out of it even though there are school closings statewide.

I do not see how you can compare this to ANY other incident knowing that the WHO calls it a level 5 which I say again has never been done AND this is a completly new strain.

If you relate this to a car driving through my house look at it like this... If i live on a country road with a speed limit of 30mph and my house is 1 acre from that road is my risk greater for having this to happen or less than if my house is on a main road with a 50mph speed limit and my front door is 100ft from the road? I don't know where you live but I'm feeling pretty close to that fast moving traffic right now. It's same as playing Russian Roulette, the more bullets in the gun the more likely you are to be the guy with grey matter leaking from his ears.

This cannot be compared so simply, as you expose yourself to something be it anything harmful the more your chances go up for it to happen to you, and were not talking about Adults making a concious decision to put themselves at risk (even if it doesn't have a high mortality rate) we're talking about children who can't make that decision for them selves, and a small open school district that has a confirmed case surrounded by large closed districts making a decision to increase thier risk.

This is NOT about HYPE or FEARMONGERING !! It's not about if he will die or the population is at risk of being destroyed! It's about a decision to continue taking risks with our children's health, when it's obvious the criteria for serious concern here locally has been met. I'm not talking about the Country or the World that has been blown up by the media I'm talking about real illness with real people being affected right here in my city and EVERY city around me. Simply cannot be hype if it is REAL and here in Texas it's for sure not make believe!!!!