Swine flu lawsuit; more cases this fall?
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GothamSchools broke the news yesterday that the family of the late Mitchell Weiner, a Queens assistant principal who was the first city resident to die of swine flu, intends to file a multi-million dollar suit against the city for wrongful death and negligence. Today The New York Times provides more detail: Weiner’s widow, Bonnie, and their three sons served a “notice of claim” (a precursor to the lawsuit) to the city on Aug. 5 charging that the city did not provide a safe working environment for Weiner and other school employees.
While her husband lay in critical condition in early May, Weiner’s widow Bonnie said she was outraged that city officials failed to act sooner to close IS 238, where both she and her husband worked. According to the Daily News, the school remained open for days after tests confirmed the virus in a number of students.
The Weiner family suit comes just days after federal government officials said that most schools should stay open even if swine flu outbreaks occur again this fall. The results of a May poll indicated that Insideschools readers agree; most of you said that students and teachers with symptoms should stay home, but that the rest of the school should carry on without interruption.
Does the Weiner family lawsuit change your mind — especially with health officials predicting that swine flu will re-emerge with the opening of schools? Please comment below!
UPDATE 8/18: The Daily News reports today that health officials do not plan to close schools as a precautionary measure if swine flu reappears. Additionally, the city will not provide daily updates on the number of people infected with the virus, as it had in the spring.
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I feel very sorry for the family but I think the lawsuit is ridiculous. I kept my son home from school when I realized that hundreds of kids were absent. His school was closed a few days later when other parents also kept their kids home and the school was virtually empty. If Mr. Weiner was not feeling well he should have stayed home, whether the school was closed or not. That is what sick days are for. His failure to stay home may have actually spread swine flu to some of the kids in the school. We will never know if he would have been fine if he had stayed home and taken care of himself but the fact that remains that nobody forced him to go into work. That was his decision. While his death was a tragedy I think the lawsuit is misguided.
Comment by queens parent — August 12, 2009 @ 5:30 pm
Queens Parent, I think you’re comment is misguided; you seem to have misunderstood. Weiner, the assistant principal, went to school when tests had confirmed that several students had contracted swine flu; he was, at first, asymptomatic. Are you suggesting that he, like your son, should have stayed home? And if so, how would any school function if the staff took a sick day when many students are absent?
Comment by Mary — August 12, 2009 @ 8:21 pm
Mary — Many staff (as well as the students) did take sick days at my son’s school and that is why it was finally closed. Aas far as we were told by the school, nobody tested positive for swine flu. We live near Francis Prep. Even though that school was closed we saw the kids on the playground, in the stores and their siblings were in the local schools. My family constantly came in contact with kids who had been exposed. Mr. Weiner could have picked up the disease anywhere. Closing schools causes real hardship for people who have to go to work and do not get paid if they don’t show up. His wife still went to school even though she had been exposed and could have spread the disease, but neither she or the kids got sick. It is a tragedy this man died, but he died of flu, which thousands of people die of each year. YOu can’t be sure where he picked up the flu nor can you be sure that closing the school would have helped because he could have had the disease for weeks before he got symptoms. Bad things happen sometimes and nobody is at fault.
Comment by queens parent — August 13, 2009 @ 5:26 pm
My sympathies are with the family but I think the lawsuit is ridiculous.Who really knows when,where or how he contracted the virus. Newsreports also said he had also had another health issue. I’m in a school that closed for a few days.fron student absences NOT staff. My high school daughter who is a healthy individual came down with something and I kept her home, never took her to a doctor and she was fine a week later. And her school didn’t close. While I have my suspicions about this particular flu (schools never closed for any other newsworthy flu)closing all of the schools won’t do anything to stop the spread. When the children can’t be together in school, they meetup/congregate in other places. While I’m not an advocate of vaccines, if parents are really worried,the vaccines are available and they should monitor the habits and health status of their children .
Comment by bklyn parent/teacher — August 18, 2009 @ 3:25 pm
Poor Mr. Weiner did not appear to be in the best physical health. He was morbidly obese, which may have contributed to his demise. Who can his family sue for that?
Comment by jim — August 19, 2009 @ 7:53 am
I am concerned about the fall. I am a teacher and parent. My high-school did not really have a sense of what was going on with the flu this past spring. Many of my senior students came into school sick. I asked them to go to the nurse and stay home but they were worried about how staying home would effect their grades. There is really no way to monitor these adolescents unless you do something extreme, like checking them as they come into the school. (Not very realistic)
My son’s high school announced they would be lenient on required work for a week or so, but he was still given a hard time in some of his classes after he returned from having the flu.
The students will keep attending school while sick until there is some kind of solution to this problem. If they want them to stay home they have to give them a break. The administration may approve a leniency policy, but the bottom line is with the teachers.
Comment by Rebecca — August 19, 2009 @ 5:16 pm
I think it will be impossible to prove that the school system was at fault for the man’s death, especially If the swine flu can be picked up anywhere–church, stores, other family members, etc.
We know that lots of people in New York contracted the swine flu last spring, but for them it was very minor, not deadly. We know that fewer people died of the swine flu last year than die of normal flu each year. Sadly, Mr. Weiner was one of the small number of casualties of the swine flu, but would his family even have though to sue if he had died of a regular yearly flu virus? Why is one somehow the responsibility of the DOE and the other not?
I think in gauging the proper response to swine flu in the fall, we need to try to deal with facts, and hopefully there is more reliable information out there this fall than there was last spring.
Comment by marge, a bklyn parent — August 21, 2009 @ 10:49 am
Many schools did not close. We had 75 kids go home one day and 25 staff out as well as 108 children absent. The city did not react to this problem the way they should have. I as a teacher got sick and was only out for two days, but had to use methods for disinfecting my room which I am not supposed to do. I had studnets leavin gmy room with 104 degree fevers and who were back the next day to re-infect. How are we as school employees supposed to protect ourselves? I send my sympathy to the family of Mr. Weiner, but does that mean that all families who had children and other family members put into the hospital or die should file a lawsuit? I will agree that the city did not handle the flu as well as they should’ve, and maybe this year when it comes back they will react better.
Comment by Teacher in Queens — August 24, 2009 @ 10:35 am