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MURRAY -- Schools in the murray district have a new weapon to fight the swine flu. Hand sanitizing machines are at every cafeteria entrance.
Hungry students rushing into the cafeteria jam up behind each other to get a squirt from an automatic dispenser of hand sanitizer. The machines are like sentinels in front of each entrance.
"Our mantra is ‘Sanitize before you appetize,'" Hillcrest Jr. High school principal Jennifer Covington said.
She says students can use soap and water too, but the dispensers are very convenient. They are new this year, thanks to the swine flu.
Some ninth graders we spoke to like them.
"It's there and it's free. It's a good thing because this school has so many germs," Jordyn Hansen and Andrea Jolly said.
But seventh graders Quinn Western and Christian Beal aren't worried about the swine flu.
"I've had it. But I didn't throw up. I just coughed," Quinn said.
Christian added, "I got it during the summer too. It wasn't as bad as what people are saying."
But Covington says sickness spreads too fast, so sanitize please. "In schools we share so many things. We share desks, we share books, we share pencils and we share germs. We really want to try to cut down on that, because when our kids get sick it just spreads really quickly. We want our kids here learning instead of home sick," she said.
E-mail: mrichards@ksl.com
