Report of findings to the Community Health Department
CC: Principal Samantha Perez, Truman Middle School
RE: Absences and Illnesses

I have been notified that there may be an outbreak of illness throughout the middle schools of Independent School District 12 which has caused a spike in student absences. While conducting research on the recent absences, I’ve noticed that in two of the four middle schools, Truman and Jackson, there was an abnormal increase in the absences of band students on May 20th and 21st . I have noticed after reviewing the school calendars and that Truman and Jackson Middle School had a Battle of the Bands event on May 19th. Telephone interviews by the School Nurse were conducted with some of the parents whose children were absent from school on those days, and I discovered that in speaking with one of the parents, it was brought to the nurse’s attention that some of the band members went out to dinner after the battle of the bands.
In an attempt to rule out food poisoning, I took the liberty of looking into the recent health inspection reports for the local restaurants, which I had access to through the health department. I discovered that there was an accounting of several health violations at two restaurants located in close proximity to the schools. According to your School Nurse, food poisoning symptoms can start within a day or two of eating contaminated food. Based on interviews conducted the symptoms, all of which were either the same or very similar, were started within two days of the battle of the bands. After reviewing the available data from the health department and schools, I am inclined to agree with the parent of Student T10, that the absences are most likely related to food poisoning and not a contagious illness such as the flu or other epidemic.
There would be no need to alert students, parents or the community about an outbreak. Thank you.
Sincerely,

Wendy S. Forbes,
Community Health Department Investigator

After conducting my investigation, I would have to ask a few other questions to support my hypothesis of food poisoning being the most likely cause of the absences. First question, “When were the restaurants’ inspections conducted?” If the inspections were done recently, then this helps support my hypothesis. However, if the inspections were conducted weeks or months prior to, or after the battle of the bands, the data provided would not be useful in supporting my hypothesis. Secondly, “Could any or all of the violations result in food poisoning for someone who eats there?” If the violations were mechanical in nature, probably not, so my hypothesis would not be supported. If they were food storage or preparation violations, then yes, this would support the hypothesis. Interviews were provided to the parents of some of the students, but I would like to interview as many as possible to ask: “Did each absent student go out to dinner after the Battle of the Bands? If each student went out to dinner, I would then ask, “Where did each student go to dinner?” If the students did go out to dinner at one of the restaurants known to have health code violations, then this supports my hypothesis. Assuming each student did go to dinner at one of those particular restaurants, I would to ask, “What did each student have to eat?” If any or all of the students ate the same types of food, then this would support my hypothesis. Finally, I would ask “How long did the symptoms last for each student?” If the recovery time was similar in all cases, I would have to say that my hypothesis is supported. However, if the recovery time for some was different, then my hypothesis would probably not be supported. If this were case, we may be looking at somewhat of a happenstance illness, or some form of epidemic from another source. The investigation would probably have to start again or take a different avenue.
I don’t believe "The Brentwood Indians basketball team lost the state championship because there is bad stuff in the stars happening with Mars in Aquarius" is a suitable hypothesis for this investigation. First off, we are dealing with the band students and not the basketball team. This would have no bearing on the investigation whatsoever. Besides, there is absolutely no proof of correlation between the performance of the basketball team and interplanetary action.