Students boycott school after meningitis scare in Davao del Sur

DIGOS CITY, Philippines—Some 300 pupils of the Pedro V. Basalan Elementary School in Barangay  Tres de Mayo here have not been attending classes since Thursday after it was rumored that the death of a Grade II pupil last Monday was due to meningitis.

Village chair Oscar Bucol said parents prevented their children from attending classes after the rumor of the girl’s death went around.

One of the parents, who wanted to be identified only as Cita, said the girl was a classmate of her son.

Cita admitted she panicked upon hearing stories on the cause of her death and prevented her son from going to school.

During the emergency meeting of the Parents-Teachers Association on Friday, Grade II teacher Norma Maranjan said the physician’s diagnosis and the result of further tests on the girl showed she did not die from meningococcemia.

Maranjan said the medical findings should reassure parents it was safe for their children to return to their classes.

Bucol said he also saw the test results on the girl and he was sure the cause of her death was not contagious.

But Bucol would not say  what exactly killed the girl. RAM/rga
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