RELEASE: Statement from Town and Gown Players

ATHENS (MyFOX ATLANTA) - The three people we lost yesterday were a part of the rich 50-year history of this theater and, more than that, were vital members of the Town and Gown family.

Ben Teague, loving husband of UGA's Dr. Fran Teague for more than 40 years, was not only a friend but also a father figure to all at the theater. One would be hard pressed to find a Town and Gowner who had not learned at least one life lesson from this wise and kind hearted man. His wife wishes to say, "Yesterday Ben was murdered, which is hard to comprehend and impossible to accept. It was a beautiful day, however, and he was in his favorite place with the people he loved." Ben was a translator of German, Russian and English.

Marie Bruce was the binding force that held the Town and Gown community together. Having worked with Town and Gown for over 20 years, at one time or another she served in every capacity at the theater, artistically and administratively, from leading lady to president of the board to chief cook and bottle washer. A local attorney, Marie was the mother of two young children.

A gentle presence, Tom Tanner breathed life into every corner of Town and Gown through his quiet diligence and astounding creativity - most would call him genius. Father of an equally amazing daughter, Tom would tell you that while he enjoyed his work as director of the Regional Dynamics Economic Modeling Laboratory at Clemson University, his heart lived and thrived in the theater.

Ben, Marie and Tom were a part of our family, and as painful as their loss is for us, we know it is even more painful for their families. We want to extend our deepest sympathy to their immediate family and close friends outside the theater community. There are no words we can use to adequately express our grief.

We would like to thank the Athens Police department and the media for their respectful treatment of this tragedy. We want to thank the American Bio Recovery Association and A1 BIO-Clean Service for the generous donation of their services in our time of need. We also want to thank the Athens Community for their support. This tragedy effects everyone in the community in some way, and we know you share in our loss. We ask that the media continue to be respectful of our privacy during this difficult time.

Custodian’s stress-disorder suit restored

Meghann M. Cuniff / Staff writer

A custodian who sued her school district after being forced to clean up the bloody scene of a student’s suicide had her lawsuit reinstated Tuesday by the Washington Court of Appeals.

Debbie Rothwell, who still works at Lakeside High School in Nine Mile Falls, suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, according to a lawsuit filed in May 2007 by her lawyer, William Powell, of Spokane. The 16-year-old student shot himself in the head inside the school’s main entrance in 2004. The lawsuit was dismissed in January 2008 by Spokane County Superior Court Judge Greg Sypolt, who ruled the incident was covered by the Industrial Insurance Act.

But the Court of Appeals, in a 2-1 ruling, disagreed and reinstated the suit.

“There are people who do clean up the mess after one of these horrible murders or suicides happen,” Powell said Tuesday, referring to private professionals. “But the superintendent in this case chose not to do that. He should have known better.”

Along with former Superintendent Michael Green, now superintendent of the Woodland School District in Western Washington, the lawsuit names the Nine Miles Falls School District, Stevens County Sheriff Craig Thayer, two sheriff’s detectives and an unidentified man as defendants.

None was available for comment. Like most civil suits in Washington, the complaint seeks unspecified damages.

Rothwell’s complaints center around her task of cleaning up the suicide scene, then being asked to move a backpack she later learned belonged to the victim and contained a suspicious device that authorities detonated using a robot.

She stayed at work until after 4 a.m., cleaning the mess of blood, brain and bone alone, becoming “emotionally distraught and physically ill” before returning to the school less than four hours later at Green’s orders to serve cookies and coffee to grieving students and keep the media from the school, according to the suit.

At issue in the court decisions was whether Rothwell’s claim of post-traumatic stress disorder fell under the industrial injury act, which prohibits lawsuits based on industry injury or occupational disease.

Judges John A. Schultheis and Dennis J. Sweeney ruled it didn’t because it wasn’t the result of one work order. Her trauma grew over several days, according to their written opinion. Judge Teresa C. Kulik dissented.

MRSA infection prompts parental notification

Bill Robinson
Register News Writer

Model Laboratory School sent a letter home Tuesday with each of its 685 students informing parents the school learned Monday afternoon about a seventh-grader who had been diagnosed with an antibiotic-resistant Staphylococcus infection.

Such infections often are referred to by the acronym MRSA, for Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus.

After learning about the case, the school immediately followed its MRSA incident protocol by notifying the Madison County Health Department and by sanitizing areas of the school that the student typically frequents, said Marc Whitt, spokesman for Eastern Kentucky University, which operates the school.

Seventh-grade students were sent home with a letter Monday, “because we wanted to first notify families of those who had children who might have come into contact with the student,” according to a letter from James Dantic, the school’s director.

After consulting with the Madison County Health Department, Dantic said he believed others students were not at increased risk of MRSA infection.

Several Model parents became alarmed Tuesday morning after learning from Lexington media reports that a MRSA case had been confirmed at their children’s school.

Dantic gave a statement to a Lexington newspaper Monday night, but Madison County media were not informed.

The father of one Model student who called the Richmond Register on Tuesday said he took his child home early Tuesday after school officials failed to reassure him.

“They wouldn’t tell me the grade of the student,” he said.

Dantic’s letter, released later in the day, identified the student as a seventh-grader.

One cause for parents’ alarm was the March 10 death of 17-year old Jessamine County student from a MRSA infection.

“MRSA is not a readily transmittable disease,” said Christie Green, Madison County Health Department spokesperson. “It requires skin-to-skin contact with an open wound or skin-to-surface contact with surfaces contaminated by an open wound.”

If a staph-infected wound is kept properly covered with clean, dry bandages, there is very minimal risk to the people around them in schools or workplaces, she said. Practicing good hygiene, such as regularly washing hands and not sharing personal items such as towels and razors is the best way to avoid MRSA infection.

If a MRSA-infected wound cannot be kept covered, the federal Centers for Disease Control recommends the infected person should avoid public spaces and should not participate in sports activities.

Under state and federal laws, MRSA is not a reportable disease.

“While workplaces or schools may choose to alert those who may come in close contact with an individual who has a MRSA infection,” Green said, “a single individual with a staph infection is not cause to notify the general public.”

That is why the local health department supports decisions made by schools and employers about informing parents and employees about MRSA cases, she said.

Most staph skin infections, including MRSA, appear as a bump or infected area on the skin that may be red, swollen, painful, warm to the touch, full of pus or other drainage and accompanied by a fever, Green said.

Staph bacteria are a fairly common, according to Dr. Kraig Humbaugh, state epidemiologist.

“One in three people will have staph on their skin at any given time,” he said. “It’s important, however, to distinguished between colonization and infection. Having staph germs on you skin is not the same as an infection.”

Although MRSA infections may not respond to the penicillin family of antibiotics, they are readily treatable with other antibiotics, Humbaugh said.

Only about 5 percent of so-called invasive MRSA infections are highly resistant, he said.

“The best way for those of us in public health to prevent MRSA infections is to teach preventive behaviors, as you local health department spokesperson told you.”

Humbaugh was to speak at a Jessamine County public meeting Tuesday evening to discuss the MRSA issue.

The Model Parents Organization has scheduled a similar meeting for April 20, Dantic said.

“I was invited to the April 20 meeting in Richmond,” Humbaugh said, “and normally I would be there, but I have a conflict that evening,” he said.

Another state health official, along with someone from the county health department, will participate in the meeting.

Dantic said concerned Model parents should contact their family physician, call the Madison County Health Department at 626-4280 or to call him at 622-3766.

He also suggested visiting the Centers for Disease Control’s Web site: cdc.gov.

Bill Robinson can be reached at brobinson@richmondregister.com or at 624-6622.

Cleanup completed at Civic Association

April 5, 2009

Cleanup has been completed at the American Civic Association building in Binghamton, where a gunman killed 13 people and injured four before taking his own life Friday.

The American Bio-Recovery Association, a non-profit international association of crime and trauma scene professionals, said Sunday that the bio-recovery cleaning was complete. The Ipswich, Mass.-based group provided the service at no cost.

Two member companies, Disaster Clean Up of Endwell and the Bio-Recovery Corporation of New York City, donated labor and supplies to remediate the scene with a crew of six technicians.