Three teachers from a lone Colorado school district died over the same weekend, leading to the temporary closure of Eaglecrest High School in Aurora, Colorado, and what appears to be some confused mixed messaging from authorities and media publicly addressing the matter.
Maddie Schmidt and Judith Geoffroy were teachers at the high school, both of whom reportedly worked in the “integrative learning center.”
“Arapahoe County Public Health Department found that Schmidt’s symptoms were consistent with meningitis,” the New York Post reported. And it appears that both teachers’ bodies are being studied to learn more about their cause of death.
While officials and reports at times acknowledge the likelihood of the second teacher from the high school also having died from meningitis, they maintain that her cause of death still has not yet been determined. And a Denver Post subtitle reads, “One died from suspected meningitis; officials say other deaths ‘completely unrelated.'”
The Denver Post piece reports that officials are contact tracing the confirmed meningitis fatality, but did not say that the same is being done related to the other teacher from the same program within the same school who died on the same weekend.
All reports seem to agree, however, that the third weekend fatality within Cherry Creek School District is deemed unrelated. Scott Nash was a physical education teacher at Willow Creek Elementary School. Although his cause of death has not been reported, assertions that it is unrelated to meningitis appear to be the case.
Bacterial meningitis can be caused by a variety of different bacteria; what constitutes “meningitis” is when infection reaches the fluid around the brain and spinal cord, causing inflammation in the protective membranes covering them, according to the CDC. Bacterial and viral are its two most common forms, especially among otherwise healthy people, and bacterial is the more serious.
Although the different bacteria can be carried by people who do not experience any sickness, outbreaks do tend to occur at times, which is why officials are conducting contact tracing. In addition to death, which often comes suddenly, bacterial meningitis can cause seizures, brain damage, hearing loss and lifelong disability.
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