Daily new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1897-1906, 1902-05-05
DIR. BROCK TALKS.
Interview with President of
School Board.
He Does not think That the Public
Schools Should be Re.0pened this
Year-Reasons Advanced why it
Would be Dangerous Experiment.

Would be Dangerous Experiment.
This morning the New DOMINION
asked DR.. L. S. Brock, president of
the Morgantown Board of Educa-
ton to make statement relative to
the scarlet fever in Morgantown.
DR.. Brock besides being head of the
Board is a practicIng physician
whose standing is recognized and
his statement is of great weight 1t
is as follows:
Since there seems to be miscon
ception on the part of the public as
to the causes which have led to the
suspension of the public schools on
two separate occasions it is perhaps
due to the public as well as to the
school board to review briefly the
situation.
Late in January it was brought to
the notice of the School Board there
were few cases of scarlet fever and
the Board passed the following reso-
luton:
Whereas, it has come to the no
tlce of this board that there are sew
eral cases of scarlet fever within the
bounds of the school district There
fore he it resolved that it is the sense
of this board that every precaution
should be taken to prevent an extern
sion of this disease and to this end
it is hereby ordered that the Public
schools of this district be suspended
for two weeks or until further no.
tice."
This order was made by the board
after having gone to the county
Board of Health as well as to the
municipal authorities so as to secure
authority from the legally author
lied source.
BY the County board we were told
that it had no authority when ther e
was a city health organization. We
then went to the city authorities
and were informed that the city
had no health officer.
Soon after this the city authori-
ties, perhaps, wisely under the cir
cumstances, legislated themselves
out OF the health business, 50 that
there might be no further question
as to where the authority existed.
The first suspension | may asy was
made by the school board more as
military necessity" than by any
authority vested in it.
The last suspension was made by
order of the county board of health
and was made to embrace the bal
ance of the school year The school
board not in any spirit of antagon-
ism but feeling that there might
be reasons which might cause the
county board to reseind or mod
ify the order made the suspension
for two weeks. Until the county
board acts the school board will not
open the schools.
Speaking for myself and perhaps
not rejecting everything the senti.
ment of the school board, | may say
that in my opinion, with well au-
thenticated cases of scarlet fever in
various portions of the city there
are so many points of infection that
at no time since the first outbreak
have we been free from a possible
epidemic of this disease.
| may say further that the city is
growing so rapidly that the very
best possible regulation tor sanitary
purposes should be made and strict
! ly enforced.
| 1t is generally recognized that
scarlet fever is most contagious
and infectious disease and perhaps
no more favorable condition for the
spread of such diseases and scarlet
fever can be obtained than in the
Public Schools where forty or fifty
children are met.
The school board has felt that il
such cases of scarlet fever were
promptly reported and the strictest
isolation enforced by the health au-
thorities that the danger of the
spread of the disease would be
greatly reduced and the schools car
ried on with comparatively little
danger.
The suspension of the public schools
! is a serious matter for many conSid-
erations and should not be made I'M
less the causes are sufficient to war
rant it. 1t has been suggested that
the physical death of two or three lit
tie innocents is less horrible than the
moral deterioration that might come
from the suspension of the schools
and taking away the restraint that
comes from systematic and we'll di-
rected efforts to improve the time.
While no one appreciates more than
/ the influence Of the public schools
in supplementing home training and
in some cases probably really the only
training possible in the uintellectual
and mental line, l cannot accept this
| line OF argument, especially If my