Parents Concerned After Mumps Outbreak Hits Cedar Hill ISD

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CEDAR HILL (CBSDFW.COM) - The 64 cases of mumps through Cedar Hill ISD have now been cleared according to school district officials.

They say every single person who contracted the virus has been treated and is now back in school.

Despite that many parents are still concerned, and some are feeling frustration over how the district handled the outbreak which began in early February.

At a community meeting Wednesday, parents, school officials and medical professionals gathered to talk about the problem and reassure the community that it has been resolved.

Many parents like Sonya Jenkins whose daughter is in the 9th grade center took the opportunity to sound off on how displeased she was over districts handling of the issue.

She said administrators did a poor job in alerting parents across the district.

Jenkins added, "they should have made a mass communication to every parent. Every person in Cedar Hill."

Jenkins claimed to have only been notified of the outbreak in March even though the district confirms the first cases were reported in early February.

She said, "I think it should have been handled as soon as the first case was confirmed."

Cedar Hill ISD superintendent Orlando Riddick agreed the information blast could have been handled differently.

He said, "we did not do one across the district and I think that's what parents are saying…in hindsight that may have been the right thing."

Riddick took the time on Wednesday night to assure parents that the 64 cases are all resolved and that they do not have any new confirmed active cases of the mumps in Cedar Hill ISD.

He said the district has taken this very seriously and they are taking aggressive and pro-active sanitation efforts on all their campuses.

The mumps is spread through bodily fluids and touch in some cases, and medical experts along with Riddick reminded parents to be proactive about monitoring their children for flu-like symptoms.

He added, "that's going to help us mitigate this whole thing that we call the mumps."

Medical professionals at the meeting on Wednesday described the mumps as being a rare virus in the U.S. mainly because of vaccination efforts.