Seymour School Superintendent MaryAnne Mascolo sent home a letter to parents Friday telling them a bedbug was found at LoPresti School.
The letter’s goal was “to clarify any misinformation that you may have heard regarding bed bugs” at the school, Mascolo wrote.
According to the letter to LoPresti parents, on Dec. 10, a kindergarten teacher found the insect in her room. She brought it to the school’s main office.
That insect was “subsequently identified by a professional exterminator” as a bedbug.
LoPresti Principal Monica Briggs contacted Mascolo, who contacted the school district nurse and the Naugatuck Valley Health District.
“The Board of Education was also informed,” Mascolo wrote.
A letter and a fact sheet on bedbugs were sent home to the parents of the students from the class where the insect was discovered.
The staff at LoPresti was notified of the incident by e‑mail, according to the letter.
Bug Busters, an exterminator out of Ansonia, arrived at the school the next day — Dec. 11, a Saturday — to inspect the rooms around the room where the bug was found.
Materials in the room were bagged and an insecticide strip was placed in the room. School officials were told the strip didn’t pose a risk to humans, Mascolo wrote.
The room was “fumigated and certain areas were steam cleaned.” School officials were advised to keep people out of the room for 48 hours — kids didn’t enter the room until Wednesday, Dec. 15.
On Monday, Dec. 13, backpacks and coats of arriving students were checked for bed bugs. No bedbugs were found.
Mascolo said she started receiving several phone calls Wednesday about the room where the bug was discovered. School officials decided to close the class room until after the holidays to alleviate concerns.
“As this was a very isolated incident; literally one bug and the situation was immediately remediated with no repeat visits from unwanted bugs, it was not necessary to inform every parent,” Mascolo wrote. “Bed bugs (like head lice) can be picked up anywhere.”
The superintendent’s letter is posted below.
