PINEVILLE, W.Va. — A professional cleaning company is scrubbing down all surfaces in three Wyoming County schools. The rest of the county’s schools are getting a deep cleaning from custodians similar to what was done during covid. The cleansing comes after students started to develop an unusual skin rash Monday at three schools.
“The school nurse at Wyoming East High School called its a rash, sores, and a variation between the two,” said Wyoming County’s Interim Superintendent Deirdre Cline.
The nurse reported the rash which started to be noticed in several students. Children were sent home and the nurse advised parents to take them to the doctor. When the number of cases reached 12, the whole school was sent home for the day. Soon afterward similar rashes were reported at Westside High School and Mullens Elementary-Middle School. Cline said the decision was made to bring in a professional cleaning team for the three schools where cases had been discovered. However, the rest of the schools were also ordered to be deep cleaned by custodial staff.
“The high schools and Mullens Elementary Middle School seems to be the nucleus of this. We took preventive measures and closed school today to do an old covid-style deep clean at those schools,” said Cline.
Those three schools will be closed through Friday. The remaining schools in Wyoming County will reopen Wednesday.
Serve-Pro was contracted to do the deep clean to their specifications at the three schools where cases were discovered. Cline said they also have done cleaning on all school buses, locker rooms, shared spaces, and even the local football fields.
The Wyoming County Health Department was notified and has been monitoring the cleaning work. According to Cline, they are on board with the plans. School is expected to reopen in all of the schools on Wednesday except the three schools where the rash was found.
“I don’t want those kids back in that school until Serve-Pro gives me a certification of their deep cleaning and until the Health Department says they are satisfied with the protocols and practices we have put out there,” she said.
Cline added, it’s unclear what the rash is.
“We’ve had no medical diagnosis provided by a physician. Our nurses think they know what it is, but nobody has given us results from a culture,” she said.