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Schools offer lessons in coping
By WES ALLISON © St. Petersburg Times, published February 11, 2001 BRANDON -- The 15 fourth-graders at Booker Elementary School, asked by the nurse how many school days their asthma had cost them, were alarmingly similar in their answers.
And that was just in the past three months. With asthma the leading cause of absenteeism in American schools, accounting for some 10-million missed days every year, schools and other youth organizations are having to learn to make allowances for legions of inhaler-toting children. Advocates also want to ensure these kids don't miss out because of ignorance about their conditions on the part of parents, teachers or coaches. "We want them to know that they can go anywhere, that they can have normal activities like any other kid," said Linda W. Davis, the nurse at Booker and Hillsborough's Bloomingdale High School, where a freshman was rushed to the hospital the first day of school after a life-threatening asthma attack. Dr. Jose Dominguez, a Tampa allergist-immunologist who has had asthma since childhood, cringes at the stereotype of the asthmatic from his school days: "One fat kid with an inhaler," forced to ride the bench during gym class because if he played, he could suffer an asthma attack. "It's not a disease that should be taken lightly, but it should not ruin your life," Dominguez said. Florida is one of a growing number of states that allow students to carry inhalers with them, rather than leaving them with the nurse or in the office, provided the child can use it properly. In Pinellas County, teachers also are discouraged from having class pets or bringing animals to the classroom, because critters -- from bunnies to kittens to gerbils -- are common triggers, said Diane Dameron, director of school health services. Schools say their best weapon is Open Airways, a free, five-hour class like the one at Booker offered by the American Lung Association. It's aimed at third-, fourth- and fifth-graders and stresses self-sufficiency, teaching children they can manage their asthma by avoiding triggers, properly using medicine and learning breathing and meditative techniques to stave off attacks. A survey of 288 students who attended Open Airways classes last year in Broward County found that missed school days dropped from 454 before the program to 95 afterward, the lung association said. Clinic and emergency room visits dropped from 204 to 19, and the number of doctor visits for asthma-related problems was cut from 367 to 56. Despite numbers like that, health officials complain some teachers and principals are reluctant to allow students to participate because they will miss preparation for the Florida Comprehensive Achievement Test. In Pinellas County, which has at least 5,500 students with asthma, the Open Airways classes scheduled for this month have been postponed until March because of the FCAT, Dameron said. One school, Anona Elementary in Largo, elected to hold a short version -- 30 minutes -- last Monday rather than wait. "Sometimes it requires persuasion . . . to convince the staff at the school that, in the long run, the child will be in the classroom more if they learn to control their asthma," Dameron said. AvMed is counting on it to cut health costs, too. The non-profit insurance company is spending $30,000 to support Open Airways in Pinellas, Hillsborough and Alachua counties this year, in hopes it will reduce hospital and doctor visits, president Sandy Hamilton said. The American Lung Association, meanwhile, has earmarked $4,000 to teach area day care and preschool workers the signs and symptoms of asthma and tips for helping prevent it: Wash dress-up clothing and stuffed animals weekly. Wash your hands if you pet a dog or cat before school. Banish standing water to avoid attracting cockroaches, a major source of children's allergy. Asthma and Allergy Network/Mothers of Asthmatics, a national advocacy group in Washington, D.C., has begun asking schools and coaches to carry extra albuterol inhalers in their first-aid kits. And while kids should be encouraged to participate, teachers and coaches also must take the disease seriously. Asthma kills about 5,500 people a year, but it lacks the "movie-of-the-week quality" of other diseases, said Susan L. Miller, program coordinator for the lung association's Gulf Coast chapter. "When a kid is not having an asthma episode, they're fine," she said. "It's hard to take the disease seriously when you haven't seen a child having an asthma episode." Robert Gordon, 9, a third-grader at Booker, has battled asthma since age 5. It's better since his family moved here from Illinois in September, but his lungs are sensitive to a variety of allergens as well as exercise. Robert wants nothing more than to be treated like any other kid, said his mom, Jeanne Gordon, and she and his teachers try to accommodate. Still, she added, "I try to let people know that he does have the asthma, in the event someone can give me some new information, or just be aware. I don't want him to be handled with kid gloves or anything, I just want them to know. Because you never know when something may happen."
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