A school is a crowded place. Such a place is not only a hotbed for flu viruses, but also one that rumours spread the fastest.

Be they primary, secondary or college students, everyone is panic-stricken, and once words go around that so-and-so has been infected with A(H1N1), the news will soon be brought back to their parents at home.

And when the parents hear that their children's school is contaminated with the flu virus, they will begin to get alarmed, and go on to ask whether the school will be closed, whether the sick student is in the same class as their children, or whether they have come into contact with the victim.

The news relayed by the students may not always be accurate. Such news could have been spread past tens or even hundreds of people and often get distorted along the way.

However, parents remain cautious and students remain precarious when attending classes.

The school authorities, as expected, deny to the last word, never asking the students to put on face masks, or conducting any disinfection exercises.

We recently receive plenty of calls, e-mails and faxes from students and their parents, complaining that even if there are students down with the flu at school, the truth has been intentionally covered up and denied, and no precautionary measures have been adopted by the school authorities.

This has caused the parents to become grossly unhappy and increasingly worried about the safety of their kids.

Some even claim that more than a score of students have been infected but the school keeps denying or refuses to suspend the classes or disinfect the school premises in a bid to protect the school reputation.

Of course, the schools can only shut down with the permission from the health ministry, but persistent denial of the right of students and parents to know the truth will only promote the spread of rumours.

Besides, this will only expose the students to greater risks, which is unfavourable to their safety and health.

While school reputation and examinations are very important, the students' safety must never be compromised. If even the health ministry has called for greater transparency, our schools should allow the parents to gain access to the actual situation in greater transparency so that they could rest assured and the students could take whatever measures necessary to minimise their risks of infection.

The number of daily fatalities due to A(H1N1) is increasingly alarming in Malaysia. Are we going to do nothing about this?

In fact, everyone has the obligation to check the spread of the virus. Schools, parents and students alike must have very high levels of moral awareness to bring the risk of infection to a minimum.

We must not only be responsible for our own health, we must also spare some thoughts for people around us. We should quarantine ourselves if we fall sick instead of hanging around in crowded places to infect other people. (By HWN YAUL LEN/Translated by DOMINIC LOH/Sin Chew Daily)