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Duval County Public Schools outlining coronavirus control plan
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At least one student says that, so far, worry among her peers at First Coast High School about coronavirus is still somewhat lighthearted.

“Whenever someone coughs, they’re like ‘Oh, you have corona[virus],’ but I feel like it’s taken more as a joke,” junior Takerah Prince told First Coast News Tuesday evening.

Prince had just attended a Duval County Public Schools board meeting at the district’s headquarters in Jacksonville with her mother and younger sister. Administrators had just outlined the district’s plan to prevent coronavirus from getting into public schools in Duval County or at least isolate it if it does.

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“I believe that health is the first concern of the school board members, and they definitely expressed that in the meeting,” Prince said.

The plan is viewable by clicking 

The five primary concerns it covers are:

  • Re-entry of students traveling
  • Registration of new students from high-risk areas
  • Sanitization of school facilities
  • School attendance
  • Employee and student travel

Within the sanitization strategy is a plan to scrub all schools using the Center for Biocide Chemistries-approved viral disinfectants while schools take spring break between Wednesday, March 4 and Sunday, March 15. Prince was comforted by that decision.

RELATED: Here's what your child's school is doing to protect against the coronavirus

“I believe that the deep cleaning is a very, very good plan of keeping students safe, and I believe that keeping the products in the schools is a great way to make sure that students’ health is the first,” she said.

In addition, schools will be supplied with an abundance of hand sanitizers. A good move according to Lynn Mooney, a mother of three students, who also attended Tuesday’s meeting.

“There’s not enough hand sanitizers in the schools,” Mooney said. “I work in the health field and we have hand sanitizers about every 20 feet. I’m glad that they’re going to buy bulk hand sanitizers for the schools because I think it’s very important to stay on top of it and be proactive.”

But Prince said she sees a gap, at least at her school.

“There is no soap and paper towels in every single bathroom,” she cautioned, “so girls are forced to use hand sanitizer a lot of the times, which I feel like is less efficient than using soap and water.”

Prince said she hadn’t mentioned that concern at the meeting but planned to do so at her school on Wednesday.

“I just want every student to be safe, and I don’t want the coronavirus to come and affect us and take us all out,” she said with a smile.

The plan also includes asking families of students to notify the school if anyone in their household has recently traveled to regions identified as "high-risk" by the Centers for Disease Control. Mooney applauded that move but also voiced hope that people will comply.

“I just hope that parents are honest about that,” she said. “I know we don’t want our kids to stay home, but we don’t want to make others sick in the process of that.”

She also expressed concern about contact with people who are infected but not yet aware, acknowledging that that can happen anywhere.

“Even though our children are with someone that’s not sick at that time, it doesn’t mean that they haven’t contracted something,” Mooney said.

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