Sars scare teacher barred from school

A teacher returning to London from Toronto's Chinatown has been told to stay away from school for 10 days as a precaution against the deadly Sars virus - but her children must go back to school as normal.

Barnet council has ordered Rachel Lewis, a special needs co-ordinator, to stay off school premises until the incubation period is over. That includes going into her children's primary school to drop them off or collect them.

However, it has ordered her children, a boy aged 10 and girl of seven, to attend school as usual.

She and her partner, Felix Gill, had taken the children to Toronto before the World Health Organisation included the city on its list of places to be avoided. The death toll there now stands at 21 and the number infected at 250. But there have been no new cases outside the medical community for nearly two weeks, and according to the WHO, there is evidence the outbreak has peaked.

The family stayed with Mr Gill's father, who lives in Chinatown, not far from Mount Sinai hospital, the centre of the outbreak. Ms Lewis says she cannot understand why she is being treated differently from her children.

Barnet council says it is following guidelines from the Department of Health, the Department of Education and the Public Health Laboratory Service which say "children and young people are less susceptible to the disease than adults".

A spokesman for the DfES said Barnet's interpretation was "far too prescriptive". The guidelines do not anywhere suggest that adults who are not showing symptoms should be put into quarantine.