NAPLES – Danali Jensen, a kindergartener at Songo Locks School in Naples, was a brave little boy on Tuesday during the school’s first round of H1N1 flu vaccinations.

Jensen flinched just a little when the nasal mist was administered by Monique Lajoie, a Saint Joseph’s College nursing student. But in a matter of seconds the inoculation was over, and the sprightly Jensen was on his way back to class.

Songo Locks School was the first school in the Lakes Region to administer the much-publicized vaccine for the H1N1 virus, also known as the swine flu. Schools throughout the area are holding H1N1 and seasonal flu clinics this week and next in hopes of containing the outbreak, which has already affected Lakes Region communities and has forced some Maine schools to close temporarily.

Statewide, H1N1 and seasonal flu vaccines have become available only in recent weeks due to a nationwide shortage. School children, health care workers and the elderly are mostly receiving whatever vaccine is available. The virus has taken a toll, with state officials last week reporting the flu-related death of a young adult in Penobscot County, though the person was said to have “serious underlying medical conditions,” according to Dr. Dora Anne Mills, director of the Maine Centers for Disease Control.

Also, several Maine schools have closed recently due to widespread infection. Schools in Winthrop closed on Tuesday for the rest of the week when absenteeism topped 25 percent of the student population.

As a result, local school districts, which are faring well comparably, are taking additional steps to head off any spreading of the virus, including educating students and faculty on proper hygiene procedures, and instructing janitorial staff to be extra diligent in cleaning areas frequently touched by students.

Windham/Raymond responds

According to Marcia Mullen, the nurse at Windham Primary School and organizer of the school district’s response to H1N1, about 6 percent of the district’s student population is out with flu-like symptoms.

“School is going on as normal,” Mullen said. “We are doing everything we can to respond.”

For the last two years, Mullen said the district has been preparing for just such an outbreak having mapped out a plan should a pandemic flu make its way to Windham. “And here we are, in the middle of it,” Mullen said. “But we weren’t caught off guard.”

Steps the district has taken include teaching kids to wash their hands five times a day and installing hand sanitizer stations in public areas such as the cafeteria, gym, computer room and library. Mullen also said the kids have been taught good “cough hygiene,” by coughing into their elbow or shoulder rather than hands. Students are also told to wash their hands after using a tissue, Mullen said.

If a child does come down with symptoms of an influenza-like illness, the student is required to stay at home until he or she is fever-free for at least 24 hours.

“We are ramping up our protocols, and we are asking the students to step up to the bar,” Mullen said.

Bonny Eagle schools respond

Assistant Superintendent Rick Matthews is heading up Bonny Eagle High School’s response to H1N1. While the school has confirmed cases of swine flu, the outbreak in SAD 6 isn’t as severe as in other districts, which Matthews credits to the tenacity of the district’s janitorial staff.

“Our maintenance crew deserves kudos,” Matthews said. “They’re cleaning twice as much as normal and doing a great job.”

Tony Perkins, custodial manager for the district’s nine elementary schools, said crews have been using Clorox bleach wipes three times a day plus once at night to decontaminate door knobs, water fountains, “whatever kids have put their hands on,” he said.

Perkins and another facilities manager are attending a training Thursday, Nov. 19 in Gorham hosted by the school’s cleaning supply vendor, Clean-O-Rama, to learn further strategies of combating germs in schools.

“This is something you have to take seriously,” Perkins said.

Elementary schools in the Bonny Eagle district will hold flu shot clinics in the next few weeks in order to vaccinate schoolchildren against H1N1 and seasonal flu, followed by the middle school and high school on Dec. 7 and 8 respectively.

Gray-New Gloucester’s response

In School Administrative District 15, the impact of swine flu has been minimal, with school nurse Ann Baiocchi estimating 7-8 percent absenteeism due to swine flu and seasonal flu.

“There’s really no firm number, since we don’t have a way to know who has the flu and who doesn’t. And that 7-8 percent could change any day,” Baiocchi said.

Like other schools in the Lakes Region, Gray and New Gloucester students are old pros when it comes to washing their hands, using hand sanitizer, coughing into their sleeve and staying home if they have flu-like symptoms.

“We have been working with students ever since April when this first started,” said Baiocchi, a school nurse for 35 years who remembers the first swine flu outbreak in the 1970s.

Unlike the 1970s, this outbreak has garnered widespread media attention as well as interest from volunteers in the community, she said. Baiocchi said medical technicians from Gray and New Gloucester rescue departments, as well as nurses from the Home Health Visiting Nurses, will be on hand during an upcoming series of flu shot clinics at the various schools.

“The community has been great,” Baiocchi said. “The PTO has bought coloring books for the kids to use on the day of the clinics. EMS folks will be here to help out. So, it’s been pretty neat how the community has stepped up.”

The district’s first round of flu shot clinics was held Thursday, Nov. 12 at each of the three elementary schools: Russell School in Gray, as well as Memorial and Dunn schools in New Gloucester. Students at the Gray-New Gloucester high school and middle school will be inoculated Friday, Nov. 13.

Kindergartener Danali Jensen receives a swine flu nasal mist inoculation Tuesday morning at Songo Locks Elementary School in Naples. Schools across the Lakes Region are holding H1N1 and seasonal flu shot clinics in the coming weeks to fight the spread of the pandemic.