SMMUSD Cancels All Extracurricular Activities Due to Norovirus

The Santa Monica Malibu Unified School district has cancelled all "optional group activities such as dances, field trips, camp trips and music rehearsals at all our schools." The decision was made on the advice of the Dept. of Public Health.

The District has been struggling with a Norovirus outbreak 10 days ago during a 7th grade field trip to Yosemite. Separately, a 17 year old girl died at santa monica high school last week. Her death has been attributed to a mysterious illness not thought to be norovirus.

The e mail from the district is below.

Dear SMMUSD families,

As you are aware, we have had cases of gastrointestinal illness, possibly due to the norovirus, at our schools the past two weeks. We received an advisory from Los Angeles County Department of Public Health (LACDPH) prior to the weekend advising us that, in an abundance of caution, we should discontinue all optional group activities such as dances, field trips, camp trips and music rehearsals at all our schools. We will be notified by LACDPH when to resume, based on a greatly reduced number of illnesses on our campuses. We will alert you when all activities are resumed.

This highly contagious illness does linger on a bit and we are working hard at our school sites to minimize exposure on campus. We appreciate your ongoing efforts at home to follow recommendations for hand washing and staying home for 48 hours after this illness, that we provided to you previously.

This is not a reflection of worsening conditions. Rather, we see the light at the end of the tunnel and would like to get back to normalcy, post virus.

School is in session, however, reduced contact between kids at optional activities will help further reduce the spread of this illness, according to DPH.

Our top priority is the health and safety of all students and we will continue to keep you informed of this situation. If you need additional information please contact our District Coordinating Nurse, Lora Morn @ 310-450-8338 ext. 70218, or our Director of Student Services, Tara Brown @310-450-8338 ext. 70217.

Thank You!

Community & Public Relations Department

Superintendent's Office, SMMUSD