"You have to protect yourself if you want to go out."

The youngster was just one of many city schoolchildren who are being kept abreast by school officials of developments in the city’s current Encephalitis crisis.

School officials told the Tribune that there is no hiding anything from these kids. They’re part of the information generation, hooked on phonics and hooked into the information superhighway.

So it makes sense that the buzz in Queens’ schoolyards on the first day of classes wasn’t about new academic requirements, uniforms, or "getting" left back. The real buzz was all about Encephalitis, and the spindly critter whose bite can be fatal.

Students are showing up at school these days armed with spray-on insecticides. Parents are armed also – with a host of questions regarding safety measures in the schools. They want to know what steps the Board of Education is taking to keep infected mosquitoes out of classrooms.

City health officials have said repeatedly that the encephalitis bug does not normally infest youngsters. The youngest reported case involves a 15-year old Bronx youth who was hospitalized on Sept. 7 and remains in very critical condition. Another teen, 17, has been recovering at Mary Immaculate Hospital in Jamaica since Sept. 9, when he was rushed there by his family. The teen complained of symptoms that mirrored those diagnosed with St. Louis Encephalitis. The teen has not yet been positively diagnosed with the disease.

Statistics aside, Queens school officials are not taking any chances.

"It doesn’t matter that diagnosed cases involve only people between 15 and 60 years old," said Helene Schomberg, an official at Community School Board 30.

"We would rather be prepared to make sure our children are safe," she said.

Letters went out to parents from the school board on the first day of school, Schomberg said – copies of a health alert issued by the New York City Department of Health. The notice, in English and Spanish, discusses in clear terms just what St. Louis Encephalitis is, how it is spread, and how doctors are able to treat individual symptoms of the disease.

The notice is specific to the fact that there is no miracle cure, or vaccine for the disease. It offers a series of clear suggestions for prevention of the disease, including tips on how to safeguard homes and apartments from the mosquitoes that carry the disease.

The letter sent by school boards also details methods being employed by the city to squash the mosquitoes that carry the disease, including municipal spraying of insecticide throughout the boroughs.

Teachers are utilizing instruction sessions for discussions about the disease and the resulting health crisis.

There are no "outside" classes – or recess periods. Students are staying indoors, in auditoriums and gymnasiums at recess time, to prevent possible exposure to the mosquitoes or the insecticide spray.

Parents are justifiably concerned ," said Matthew Bromme, Superintendent District 27. Of a meeting with all district superintendents he added, " We all said the same, let’s just be extra careful."

Bromme said that his district’s schools also sent parents letters alerting them to spraying around the school area, and the custodians were instructed to clean the area outside the school extra carefully. Though there was no district-wide policy concerning how schools should handle the spraying, Bromme said that some District principals did chose to keep their children inside all day.

In School District 26, "We kept all the children inside for the first couple of days, but now that they’ve said it’s safe to go out, we’re letting them out," Deputy Superintendent Anita Saunders said.

School Spraying

City officials ordered spraying to begin around – and in – city schools one day before classes resumed. Public School 29 in College Point was one of the first to be sprayed, officials said. Crews drove trucks equipped with misting devices around the school twice on the night before classes opened. The school sits at the epicenter of the encephalitis scare, near the site of the first reported incidents of the disease.

Spraying will continue until the disease stops showing up in patients at local hospitals, officials said. Crews will continue to spray schools and school grounds beginning at midnight, they said. The trucks have been spraying up to 12 schools each night.

An official from the Mayor’s Office of Emergency Management added that the Board of Education has agreed to wash down playground areas in the morning to safeguard against children ingesting the insecticide.

The Board of Education has asked city health officials to be especially cautious in notifying schools when spraying will occur. Principals and teachers are concerned about health risks to children with asthma and other respiratory diseases, officials said.

EFFECTS ON KIDS

"How can they tell us that there is no health risk in exposure to this insecticide when their own crew members are padded and covered up to the ‘nines’ when they go near the stuff?," asked one exasperated mother outside PS 85 in Astoria.

"If they have to take such severe precautions, how can they say it’s okay for us to breathe this stuff?"

Parents gathered at the Astoria school on opening day did not dispute the city’s decision to spray. They were simply concerned that in its race to destroy the deadly mosquitoes, they could be putting city residents at risk.

School nurses treating symptoms that show up in students who have had more than their share of anticipation over the spread of the disease.

"Children are coming in to our stations with complaints of nausea, headaches and shortness of breath," said a nurse at a College Point school. Speaking on terms of anonymity, the RN said the students are "more likely" suffering from anxiety than the disease.

"But we can’t take anything for granted," she said. "Each complaint must be checked-out."

A group of children stood, gathered on a street corner adjacent to PS 85 in Astoria. They bantered back and forth, comparing their knowledge of the encephalitis scare and how it has affected their day-to-day activities.

"I’m only allowed to go outside with an adult," one youngster said. "And only after I spray myself all over with Cutter."

A second, then a third youngster echoed tales similar of the first.

"Forget about riding my bike," one child chirped-in, "I wish someone would find a way to get rid of those stupid mosquitoes."

E-Coli warning

In the midst of the Encephalitis scare, a second health warning has arrived from the state Department of Health, Schomberg said.

Governor George Pataki has instructed schools to educate youngsters about the escalating E-Coli virus crisis that reared its head recently at an upstate festival.

Health warnings have been sent to school officials, urging them to orchestrate discussions with students on proper hygiene – a preventive measure in the battle against E-Coli.

The number of people suspected to have been infected by the E-Coli virus in upstate New York doubled in recent days, sending the number spiraling to more than 300. The outbreak is the most serious ever in the United States, officials said.

The virus, which state health officials said could probably be traced to contaminated water at the Washington County Fair, held late last month. Of those infected, 49 have been hospitalized, including 10 children. Eight of those children are listed in serious condition, on kidney dialysis.

The strain of E-Coli found in upstate New York could be very deadly to children, health officials said. Pataki issued the urgent notice to schools regarding the disease despite the fact that no cases have been reported in New York City.

The warning advises youngsters to wash their hands before they eat, and after they use the bathroom. It also reminds children to throw used paper towels into a waste receptacle – not on the floor.

Such reminders should be commonplace, Schomberg said.

Still, it doesn’t hurt to get the word out, she said.