Meningitis case confirmed in Pasco school district

Some parents took their children out of Zephryhills High School this morning after the Pasco County Health Department confirmed that a student in the school district was diagnosed with bacterial meningitis.

Deanna Krautner, a spokeswoman for the health department, said health officials were working with the school district, but did not say which school was involved. She said she could not release additional information because of patient privacy concerns.

"We do have a team working with the schools to inform the parents," she said.

Summer Romagnoli, a school district spokeswoman, also confirmed that a Zephyrhills High student had died, but because of patient privacy issues could not say what the cause of death was.

One of the district's crisis intervention teams was available to provide grief counseling for students and staff at the school, which is routine in such cases, she said.

Meanwhile, in some cases worried parents removed their children from the school.

Mellisa Simms, whose son and daughter attend Zephyrhills High, was upset that school officials weren't quicker and more forthcoming with information. She checked her children out of the school after another parent called to tell her that a case of bacterial meningitis was confirmed.

"This is people's lives you are playing with," Simms said. "Bacterial meningitis can be deadly."

Romagnoli said it was unnecessary for parents to remove their children from the school.

In a letter sent home to Zephyrhills High parents in the afternoon, health officials said bacterial meningitis is spread through close, intimate contact such as kissing; sharing utensils or toothbrushes; sleeping in the same room as the infected person; direct contact with a patient's oral secretions, such as with a boyfriend or girlfriend; or coughing in close contact.

The bacteria that cause meningitis are not spread by casual contact or "simply breathing air where the person with meningitis has been," the letter said. For example it is not passed by sitting near a person in a classroom, on the bus or in the cafeteria.

"It's rare that bacterial meningitis would be spread at school," Romagnoli said.

She said the school district was limited on how many details it could give about the case because of a federal law on patient privacy.

Simms said the first inkling she had something was amiss came Tuesday when her son told her a student who had been sick had died. He was unsure, but thought the student had viral meningitis, Simms said.

This morning, another parent, Dee Arias, called Simms and told her that she had learned it was a bacterial meningitis case.

"The parents need to know what's going on," Simms said. "It should be the parents' choice if they want to send them to school."

Arias also removed her 16-year-old son from the school today and, like Simms, was upset that she couldn't find out more information.

"The school is keeping their mouths shut," Arias said. "The principal refused to speak to me."

Arias said other parents were checking their children out of the school while she was there. They asked to see a letter the school had prepared to send home to parents later in the day, Arias said, but a secretary said the school was waiting for authorization from the district offices.

Arias said it was important for parents to have information as quickly as possible because doctors could provide their children with preventive care.

"I'm like, 'What is the matter with the people at the school?' " she said.

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