Health emergency at DC school with infestation of rodents, bedbugs – Washington Times

ANALYSIS/OPINION:

Aaron Doughty appears borderline frustrated and understandably anxious with D.C. school and health officials.

A father of two girls who attend Alfred Kiger Savoy Elementary School, Mr. Doughty and other parents learned by way of TV news that the school is infested with bedbugs and rodents.

A rodent problem might be understood, since Savoy sits hard by the Anacostia River. Bedbugs, not so much.

Whats truly troublesome is that school officials were aware of the infestation last year, which means they had the whole Christmas break to clear out classrooms, treat the problem, and return or buy classroom materials.

Mr. Doughty took pictures of his girls bedbug bites and allowed them to be broadcast on WTTG-Channel 5, which first reported the story.

He said his daughters, 9 and 10 years old, would not return to Savoy until the problems are resolved. He said the girls bug bites began around Christmas.

They wont be back because they have several bites on them, and Im very concerned about the situation, he said. I will not be sending them to school.

D.C. does have a serious bedbug problem. Orkin, a leader in the pest control industry, lists the nations capital as the No. 2 center for bedbug infestation. Baltimore is No. 1, and Chicago and New York follow D.C. (In case youre interested, Houston, site of Super Bowl LI, holds the 17th spot on the top 50 list.)

Mr. Doughty isnt the only parent who took city health and school officials to task.

This is not how you should notify parents of rats and bedbugs, another parent told Channel 5. I had to see it on the news. Then, the school doesnt notify the parents until four days later.

As for school authorities, they issued this statement: We were made aware of an incident of bedbugs at Savoy Elementary School, and we hired professional cleaning contractors to thoroughly clean the school, developed an ongoing cleaning plan for the building, and ordered new nap mats with 2-foot risers. We are working with the school and the community to be vigilant in keeping unwanted pests from entering the building.

Reassuring? Not really.

Although officials implemented a three-day-a-week extermination and cleaning plan, a key mistake is allowing students, school personnel, parents and visitors to continue to come and go at Savoy, a pre-K through fifth-grade school.

Bedbugs are unwanted transplants because they travel on and in whatever they cling to. If infested backpacks and clothing are carried home from an infested school, the critters make the return trip to the freshly sanitized school in the infested gear.

Rodents and other four-legged pests dont stay away simply because the exterminator tells them to leave.

Clearly, authorities with the D.C. Health Department need a sustained public profile on this problem.

I say that because, as I stood outside Savoy yesterday afternoon, I wondered whether the trash bins, brooms and mop buckets I saw near the Savoy kids eating area were free of bedbugs or if the room itself was clear of rodents, which generally come and go as they please. The adults appeared as oblivious as the kids.

This was hardly welcome news to the Districts public schools chancellor, Antwan Wilson, who marked his first day on the job yesterday.

The D.C. Health Department informs on its website: Bedbugs feed only on the blood of warm-blooded hosts. They can conceal themselves in any tight crack or crevice, and are often found in padding, such as mattresses and box springs. They can also hide behind electrical faceplates, baseboards, folded areas of beds, bedding, adjacent furniture, picture frames, wallpaper and nearly anywhere inside a shelter, apartment, or structure.

Schools and other educational environs should be added to that list.

Deborah Simmons can be contacted at dsimmons@washingtontimes.com.

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Health emergency at DC school with infestation of rodents, bedbugs - Washington Times