NEW YORK CITY, N.Y. – New York City schools have experienced 336 confirmed bed bug cases within the first two months of this school year. If the trend continues, the city could surpass the record 1,019 cases that occurred over the course of last school year.
School officials told the New York Daily News that despite these numbers, city schools are not experiencing a serious infestation. They declined to release a complete list of schools affected by bed bugs because, they stressed, a confirmed case could mean that only one bed bug had been sighted.
The majority of cases are in Brooklyn (137 cases) and Queens (109 cases), with more scattered cases in Manhattan (45 cases), the Bronx (39 cases) and Staten Island (6 cases), reports NY1 News.
To combat the bed bug problem, students are placing their belongings in plastic bags and bins when on school grounds. This policy was first adopted at P.S. 197 where an exterminator left residue on teaching materials while fumigating, prompting the immediate disposal of these items.
According to NY1 News, members of the teacher’s union plan to hold a car wash to raise funds to purchase new teaching materials.
Teachers told the New York Daily News that the fumigation had turned out to be worse than the bed bug problem.
