Donation helping school recover from flu outbreak
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• Photo gallery: Donation helps school hit by flu decontaminate
By Katie Urbaszewski
Advertiser Staff Writer
PALOLO — A Mo'ili'ili company has donated its decontamination services to 'Anuenue School, a small Hawaiian language immersion school that was the hardest-hit among O'ahu public schools reporting cases of swine flu.
Chemstruction Systems Hawaii last Wednesday filled every building on campus with a chemical fog. It also decontaminated air ducts and donated 120 bottles of hand sanitizers and sprays.
After reading about 'Anuenue School's swine flu outbreak, Chemstruction manager and estimator Arthur Kashiwai called principal Charles Naumu and offered to contribute labor and chemicals that would normally cost about $22,400.
"This is a donation," said Kashiwai, who has known Naumu since childhood. "I don't want any kids sick. I'm doing it from my heart. And if it were any other school, I would do it for them."
The school, officially known as Ke Kula Kaiapuni 'O 'Anuenue, had the largest number of H1N1 flu cases in the state. A teacher and student were diagnosed May 12, and over the next several days, state health officials confirmed nine additional cases connected to the school.
At least nine other O'ahu public schools reported swine flu cases, but none to the extent of 'Anuenue. At one point about 150 of the school's 353 students were absent as parents kept their children home.
The school year ended June 5 and summer school began Monday.
No traces of swine flu were found in any of the samples collected from each building on Monday, Kashiwai said.
"It's an effort to make sure the school is as clean as possible," Naumu said. "I know it's impossible to be completely germ-free. But it was offered free of charge, and because of all the things we've gone through, I was open to any suggestions."
Naumu said that despite the struggles, students and parents responded very well to the swine flu scare based on the graduation ceremony turnout on June 6. The ceremony for the class of 23 students drew about a thousand well-wishers, he said, and the ceremony was able to include the Hawaiian nose-to-nose greeting, the sharing of ha, or breath.