Oakland students, parents react to confirmed case of tuberculosis on campus

OAKLAND, Calif. (KGO) -- An Oakland school is getting ready to test students for tuberculosis after a member of the community was diagnosed with the airborne disease.

Skyline High School administrators will test hundreds of students next week and will soon be letting parents know if their child is on the list.

RELATED: Hundreds of Oakland students possibly exposed to tuberculosis

This is in response to one confirmed case on campus.

A few students wore medical masks on Tuesday in response to the confirmed case of tuberculosis. Others talked about skipping class altogether.

"People are saying that they are not going to come, they just don't want to come, they just want to stay home, they don't want to risk it," one student said.

School officials say they have been proactive with information and the patient is in isolation. But some parents still feel a little uneasy.

"It's kinda scary. I have two children here. I definitely don't want either one of them catching it. I'm hoping they are gonna test all the kids and not just the ones they think are exposed," parent Joycelynn Jones said.

Health officials say that could lead to false positives and putting people on antibiotics unnecessarily. But they will test hundreds of kids next week.

The parents of those deemed most likely to be exposed will soon be getting letters - that's when the principal is expecting a strong reaction.

"I would expect that there will be more parents concerned when they get the letter their student may have been exposed because then it hits your kitchen table when you open your mail," principal Nancy Bloom said.

But for now, she says attendance is fine and parents are calm.

"We had a parent meeting last night. There were about ten parents in attendance. What it says to me is that the parent body overall is comfortable and confident in what we are doing and how we are doing it," Bloom said.

Because of privacy laws, Bloom won't say who the patient is but she says she expects the person to make a full recovery.