Bishop CISD responds to staph infections within the district

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Bishop High School is being deep cleaned following some staph infection concerns. We spoke with Superintendent Christina Gutierrez about how they are responding.

“Thursday, I got a phone call from our head football coach, and he explained to me that we had a coach recently test positive for staph, and a couple of students test positive for staph,” Gutierrez said.

This lead to a forfeited game against the Refugio Bobcats and a canceled varsity game scheduled for Friday night.

“Who doesn’t want to have Friday night football but in the best interest of the students and to continue to play for the next couple of weeks, it was the best decision to make,” Gutierrez said.

Now Bishop CISD is taking action, focusing on those who have staph infection, who may have potentially been exposed and stopping the spread.

“We’re going to have a crew of custodial staff at the junior high campus and the high school campus doing some deep disinfecting of all the classrooms and more in the areas of the locker rooms, the film rooms, the weight room and so forth,” Gutierrez said.

Chief Medical Officer Doctor Schwirtlich said staph is everywhere, but it can dangerous when you have a cut, scratch, or bruise.

“You can get extremely sick. The elderly are more prone to get sick with it. They can get what’s called cellulitis. It’s a skin infection you can get from staph,” Schwirtlich said.

Those who have contracted staph infection will take three to five days to get better. To stop the spread health experts say it’s important to keep everything clean and disinfected.

“Making sure you try to keep those rooms clean,” Schwirtlich said.

As for those who have tested positive, they’ll be allowed to return to school when they’re cleared by their doctor. Games will resume as scheduled by Monday.