Misguided School District Makes the Wrong Call

Palo Alto, CA
As a school administrator, I am prone to giving fellow administrators leeway in school safety decisions.  After all, they are the ones on the scene, and they have access to more information locally than I have at my computer.  But in the case of Colman Chadam of Jordan Middle School, the school administrators have incorrectly applied medical knowledge to a case of two students, one with Cystic Fibrosis (CF), and the other, Colman Chadam, who is a genetic carrier.

As a carrier, Colman has one genetic mutation that, if he married another person with a genetic CF mutation, there would be a one in four chance that their child would develop CF.  What it also means is that Colman does not have CF, nor any symptoms associated with CF.  It should also be known that CF is not contagious.

School officials had this to say, "Based on the advice of medical experts, this is the zero risk option, and most certainly helps our District deliver on its commitment to provide safe learning environments," Charles Young, associate superintendent of education service at the Palo Alto Unified School District, said in a written statement to ABC News.

The problem with this is that medical experts did not give them the advice to keep Colman away from the child with CF.  

According to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, an estimated 30,000 children and adults have cystic fibrosis, and 10 million more are carriers of the cystic fibrosis genetic mutation but do not have the disease (Emphasis mine).  The article mentions research done by Dr. Lisa Saiman, and incorrectly concludes that, "Exposure can cause bacterial cross-contamination and a higher risk for infections among people who are carriers of the gene or who have the disease."

The research on exposure only relates to CF patients, those who actually have CF.  CF carriers do not have CF.   They are not CF patients, as they are not ill.

Approximately 5% of the general population are genetic carriers.  If the school district were to truly be concerned about the CF student-patient, they would need to screen all the students in the school, and identify the 5% of the student population that are genetic carriers.  Of course, this is absurd, and totally unnecessary.

All CF guidelines apply only to CF patients, and it's not because CF it contagious (It is not), but because of secondary infections that can occur between CF patients.

The Palo Alto School Distict is wrong on this one.

Safe Havens, International

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