Posted on 10/20/2012 11:55:14 AM PDT by Tired of Taxes
A California boy has been ordered to transfer to another middle school because he carries the genetic mutations for cystic fibrosis – even though his doctors and parents maintain he does not have the incurable, non-infectious disease, the San Francisco Gate reported.
School officials said they believe 11-year-old Colman Chadam’s genetic makeup may put other students at risk and ordered him to move from Palo Alto’s Jordan Middle School to another district middle school three miles away after his parents disclosed his condition on a medical form in the beginning of the school year.
Colman has never had the lung problems associated with the disease, has never required treatment and tested negative on a sweat test, which is the definitive diagnostic test, his parents, Jamy and Jennifer Chadman, said Thursday.
The Chadmans said they only disclosed his condition out of an “overabundance of caution” and tried to convince the school officials that he does not have classic cystic fibrosis and therefore is not a risk.
While cystic fibrosis is not contagious, bacteria from the disease can be dangerous to others who have it as well, and non-siblings are advised to stay 3 to 6 feet away from each other, according to the Chronicle. A pair of siblings at Colman’s school do have the disease, which prompted school officials to force Colman to change schools seven weeks into the year.
Colman’s parents took the school district to court Friday to fight the decision. Colman will be home-schooled until it is determined whether he can stay at Jordan or must go to Terman Middle School.
“Honestly, if I felt Colman was a risk to others, I would move him," Jennifer Chadam said. "I don't want anyone to get sick."
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
The bacteria that is issue only possibly effects other CF persons...people without CF have no issue
The article says that there are already two kids with CF at the school.
It sounds like the boy who was turned away may be an unusual case, and while he does not have CF now, perhaps it is not 100% clear that he could not get it.
You name it. CS sufferers shed larger amounts over everything from staph to strep, and it doesn’t stop with bacteria. Fungal infections also plague CF sufferers, and they are contagious.
It not a matter of CF sufferers having unique infections, but they are human petri dishes growing larger colonies of bacteria and fungus than you’d find in a healthy individual. As a non-sufferer, being around someone with CF exposes you to higher concentrations of pathogens than you’d normally encounter.
FTR, the news article might be wrong about the number of students who have CF at the school. It doesn’t make sense that, if CF patients present a danger to each other, and school policy is to transfer them to separate schools, why would two students who actually have CF be allowed to remain in the school? Another article out there claimed there’s only one student.
Correction: “a pair of siblings”
That must be why two are allowed to stay in the school. Sorry, I’ve read a few different articles about this story, and I confused them. This Fox News article is probably correct.
He might spread his genes during sex education classes in California. ;)
How about a little common sense here...
All CF kids apply the "stripper rule"....no touching and must be six feet away at all times
I was beyond sympathetic (outraged, maybe) till I got to the part about the siblings at the school who could be at risk.
He is no more a human petri dish that any other kid in his school.
Less so than any of the recent arrivals from third world countries who are welcomed with open arms at the same school, and certainly less so that the two kids at the same school who actually DO have CF.
The sweat test is a routine screen for children whose parents are both known have the CF gene. He passed.
When you read the article, did you happen to see the part where it mentions that "1 in 25 people are carriers".
For those of you in Rio Linda that means that the odds are pretty darned good that in any random classroom of 30 or so students there is already a kid with one CF gene.
Yet he's too "dirty" to go to this school? Why?
And why is he clean enough to go to another school 3 miles away?
What's so "special" about the two siblings at Jordan school that ACTUALLY HAVE CF and by your reasoning are little, filthy, living, breathing, coughing petri dishes full of "everything from staph to strep, and it doesn’t stop with bacteria. Fungal infections also plague" that they get to stay, while the healthy kid has to go infect some other school?
(So I deliberately edited your words to imply you said that CF sufferers could have plague. Sue me.)
The article said it was from a gene. You don’t “catch” cystic fibrosis from a gene.
From the article: “... bacteria from the disease can be dangerous to others who have it as well, and non-siblings are advised to stay 3 to 6 feet away from each other,..”
So, if this child gets near the 2 siblings in his school who have CF, THEY are in serious trouble. The school would be charged with making sure they all keep their distance. Or possibly not travel within the same parts of the school so as to be exposed to each other’s germs.
Kids passing germs is endless. The 2 other students could not be assured they would not be exposed to Colman.
I’ve lived a similar situation to this, with a child having to be isolated. It’s tough but the 2 vulnerable children have to be protected.
Okay, so CF can be passed to others just by aerosol as in sneezing or touching or bodily fluids as the person would sneeze into their hand then touch a door knob? How is CF passed to others?
Bacteria, not CF, can be and is passed, airborne and on surfaces, from one person to another; happens every minute of every day. In the case of one carrying the CF gene, and others who also carry, that bacteria can be dangerous. The simple exposure of the 2 other students to Colman’s bacteria is what is dangerous.
Thanks. Didn’t know that CF could be passed like that. I thought it was hereditary like in this case. Makes one scared just to venture outdoors to a mall.
This is like banning all kids who eat peanut butter to protect those who are allergic to peanuts.
CF itself isn’t contagious. Apparently, there is other bacteria that can be spread between CF patients only. See the link at post #39: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2947781/posts?page=39#39
Let me try this again, because it’s a tad subtle but important. Coleman carries the CF gene but is asymptomatic (thank GOD). He can’t pass CF itself, but his bacteria that can be transmitted so easily could make those other students very sick. His bacteria presents no problem to any other students unless the other student(s) carry the CF gene.
If one of your kids had CF, you’d be sure to let the school know that another CF gene carrier could present health challenges to your child, even if that other student doesn’t have CF, but only carries the gene.
Some years ago the mother of a girl in my sons’s class called mothers of kids in the class trying to determine who had chicken pox. Notably who had chicken pox and had been around her daughter. They thought it was rather strange because they didn’t know that a normal childhood sickness like chicken pox can be and usually is fatal to a child who’s recently had chemo (as that mother’s child had). Parents of vulnerable children have to be continuously on guard for any threat to their kids and not assume others know of the dangers presented.
He is a CF gene carrier. He carries certain bacteria that present a dangerous situation to 2 other students at the school. That bacteria presents no problem to healthy students, but it does to the 2 other students who carry the CF gene. If the 2 other students were not already in the school, there would be no problem, but they are already there. It has nothing to do with having CF, but the bacteria that are part of carrying the gene.
Okay, thanks. Got it.
Where does it say that the genetic mutation for CF means that he is carrying bacteria? I’m just curious - asking an honest question. The article indicates that the bacteria is spread only between people who actually have CF, which this boy doesn’t actually have. He only supposedly has a genetic mutation that’s associated with CF, although he tested negative through a sweat test.
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