Seattle's School Board Closes Two Schools as Scarlet Fever Spreads
With cases reported for four weeks, the board ordered the sick kept home and required a physician's certificate before any child could return.
At a meeting of the Board of Education, it was decided to close two of the public schools for the remainder of the school year, because children had been suffering from scarlet fever during the past four weeks. Children who were then ill would not be allowed to return to any of the school buildings.
The board adopted a rule requiring a physician's certificate for any child who had been sick, and the health officer was instructed to notify the parents of each child excluded from school. The board also discussed the cases reported in various parts of the city. The president stated that every case of fever reported would be isolated with due care, and members emphasized that the disease had been traced to a number of homes. The schools, they concluded, should not be kept open while the danger continued.
“If it is the opinion of this board that the schools be closed, I will comply with the order.”
A century before COVID-19, Seattle's school board faced the same wrenching calculus: how much schooling to sacrifice to slow a contagious disease. The episode is a reminder that public-health decisions have always been school-board decisions, with children and working families bearing the disruption.
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