From laptop to smashed top

September 11, 2009 • written by Lawerence Rivac

“When I went to the doctor’s they stuck a Q-Tip in my throat and tested me for something, and I stayed home for about two days,” Embry said.

“They did that to me too,” Ly added, “but I didn’t have swine flu.”

Suddenly, teachers started noticing up to nine students missing in a single class.

Seniors Kaitlin Renfro and Michael Capule both contracted viral infections. Whether or not they had swine flu is unknown to them, but they both shared the same symptoms: cough, sore throat, runny noses, fevers, weakness, chills, body ache, and nausea are a few.

Students responded to Lek’s advice by asking to leave class when they felt these symptoms.

“Students were coming down and asking us to check their fevers,” Strawn said.  “At first the attendance office was overwhelmed with the number of students falling ill, but the more information I collected, the more proactive I could be about disinfecting everything.”

Interestingly, not all the students falling sick had flu symptoms. Urgent care doctors at the Palo Alto Medical foundation claimed that the CDC is not testing for swine flu in particular. Only children under the age of 5 and seniors can be treated. Tests take almost two months to come back and by that time the patient is usually over the infection.

This means that it is difficult to tell for sure whether or not any Moreau student actually contracted the H1/N1 virus.

“No doctor has verified the cases of swine flu but there are some suspected cases,” said Lek. “The fever is the determination, and by encouraging students to use hand sanitizer we are motivating students to have good practices.”

Assistant Principal Mike Aquino fell sick for a while as well. He was not tested for the flu, but he understands the importance of taking precautions. “Staying at home and keeping good hygiene is the most we can do to prevent more students from falling sick,” Aquino said.

If over 15% of the studnent body fell sick with the same symptoms, the school would have to temporarily close.

“We are nowhere near that number,” Aquino said.

If that did happen, Aquino has worked with teachers to prepare a backup plan.

“We would depend entirely on technology,” he said. “Teachers would conduct synchronous chats and discussions with small groups of students at a time.”

For now, teachers are working to accommodate student absences.  Senior Jessica Lopez missed seven days of school, and when she came back she had a hard time catching up in Calculus. “Mr. Gongwer has been the most helpful and understanding teacher,” she said. “His calculus class is really hard for me and I missed a test and some extra classes, but he has really given me a lot of time to catch up and learn all of the material.”

For future prevention, the H1/N1 vaccine is being made available to the public in November.

Luckily for other students, Moreau has an additional insurance policy to cover accidents. “The screens are covered under an insurance policy, so instead of paying $700 replace a screen, students only pay the $100 deductable,” Mendiola said.

Through much use of the laptops over three years, the battery life is decreasing, forcing some students to stick close to an energy source. Senior Ken Hill is one of those students who lost the portability factor of his laptop. “Right now my laptop still can’t function without being plugged in,” he said.

According to Apple’s website, the batteries in the older generation laptops are intended to last only 300 recharge cycles.
“So these laptops are nearing the end of their lives,” Martin said.

Fortunately, the underclassmen don’t have to worry about this problem so soon because the new laptops are made to last about 1000 recharge cycles.

Perhaps the scariest problem for most students is hard drive failures, which leaves a lasting impact on a student’s daily school life. Without the hard drive, the computer might as well be a paperweight. Along with the dead battery, Hill also has troubles with his hard drive not working. Students can be seen transporting their laptops while open and running. They don’t give a second thought to how it could cause problems.

According to Martin, a possible cause to the problem is when the laptop is open, the hard drive continues to spin. Along with the askew position of the computer, it causes the moving parts to clash, resulting in a failed hard drive or CD drive.

The problems experienced by seniors have made them realize how valuable the laptops really are to school life. As Nepomuceno said, “I plan to use the case provided, in hopes of never being without a laptop again.”

Filed Under News
Tagged:  

 Email This Story        Print This Story