SOUTH BEND — Sept. 15. That’s when South Bend’s public schools started taking a series of steps to prevent the H1N1 flu. On Wednesday a scene played out in the Clay Intermediate Center lunchroom that shows at least some of the students get the point.

A half-dozen eighth-grade girls sat at a table recruiting classmates to donate money for flowers for classmate Mercedes Lewis’ funeral. The 11-year-old died Tuesday, and health officials are investigating whether it was caused by influenza.

The kids also asked students to sign a white box into which they were depositing handmade messages of condolence for the family.

But before a classmate picked up a marker to add a message or name, or draw a flower on the cardboard box, one of the girls would squirt some sanitizer onto that student's hands first.

On Sept. 15, administrators from South Bend and other local school districts gathered with county health officials to learn about the H1N1 flu.

If students and staff have flulike symptoms, they are asked to stay home until they are fever-free for a full 24 hours without medication, said Roz Ellison, executive director of student services for the South Bend Community School Corp.

If the number of H1N1 cases becomes severe, the schools may ask ill students to stay home for seven days. But it’s far from reaching that point, Ellison said.

All of that follows with the Centers for Disease Control recommendations to schools — as do many of the other precautions local districts are taking.

Ellison said she’s working with the county health department to set up H1N1 vaccination clinics for the schools, which are expected to start Oct. 15.

At their Web sites, local school corporations are providing links for more information and advice about the H1N1 virus.

The Indiana Department of Education says that districts may consider closing schools, but only as a "final option." Local districts say they are far from reaching that extreme.

"We will close schools when we are no longer effectively able to keep the schools open," Ellison said.

An example of that would be if too many staff are gone because of the illness, she said.

The CDC advises leaving this decision up to local officials. But local school officials say the CDC and health department are advising local districts to stay open now because they have healthy children.

Meanwhile, Ellison said South Bend teachers have been asked to be role models by washing their hands, coughing into their elbows and staying home when ill. And 500 posters from the CDC have gone out to all of the schools to remind kids of those same three techniques.

Sick bays have been designated at each school, a room apart from the nurse’s office where the child can briefly wait to be picked up by his/her parents, she said.

Nurses keep weekly reports of flu numbers.

Since April, custodians have been following a protocol in which they regularly wipe desks, computer keyboards and other surfaces with a specific sanitizer, Ellison said. They’ve been trained on the correct sanitizing solutions to use.

There are extra bottles of disinfectant spray in the classrooms, she said.

As in South Bend, Mishawaka and Penn-Harris-Madison schools have put out lots of hand sanitizer.

Still, they prefer if students wash with soap and water.

Students may bring their own personal hand sanitizers to South Bend and P-H-M schools, but they’re not allowed in Mishawaka schools.

Gregg Hixenbaugh, Mishawaka’s director of human resources and relations, said the schools need to know the chemical contents of anything allowed into the school. If a child managed to swallow hand sanitizer brought in by a student, school personnel wouldn’t know the chemical contents of it, he said.

P-H-M spokeswoman Teresa Carroll said some parents have brought in hand sanitizers and disinfectant wipes and helped teachers wipe down surfaces.

Hixenbaugh said teachers are being asked to help custodians efficiently ensure the wiping off of all surfaces that are touched often.

"We believe we are in the best shape we can be," he said.

Staff writer Virginia Black contributed to this story.