LYNWOOD — A total of six H1N1 flu cases have been confirmed among the Lynwood Unified School District’s 18 school sites.

In a report to the school board last week, district Business Manager Bill Agopian said six is a small number for a district of 17,000 students, and a “very low number compared to the number of cases at other school districts our size.”

Still, Agopian said, the district is taking every case seriously and is handling each case under guidelines established by the county Department of Public Health

Of the six confirmed cases, five involved students. The other was a staff member. A seventh case — at Marshall Elementary School — has not been confirmed and a possible eighth case — at Abbott Elementary School — was a false alarm, Agopian said.

The H1N1 virus, commonly known as swine flu, is affecting people throughout the world. Agopian said in the last few weeks panic has hit home for hundreds of parents who have pulled their children out of affected schools for a few days in fear of the virus.

The false alarm at Abbott happened when a school official received word that a student was out sick due to the H1N1 virus. A telephone message in Spanish was sent out to more than 700 parents notifying them that an H1N1 case had been confirmed.

The phone message was not part of the district’s protocol for handling the situation, Agopian said. The phone message was not meant to scare parents or tell them to pull their children out of class, it was merely done to notify them of the case.

“There is a procedure that should have taken place first,” Agopian said, adding that he could not really get into too much detail.

A teacher at Abbott who asked to remain anonymous, said school officials acted before asking all of the right questions, she said.

“No one in the front office tried to first confirm if the student in question had actually been examined by a medical practitioner, nor if a medical practitioner had confirmed the virus,” the teacher said. “The message was sent out early in the morning, and next thing you know parents are coming in to take their kids out of school. … But as it turns out, the student in question did not have the H1N1 virus, so the message was sent out prematurely.”

Confirming a swine flu case is the first step in the process, Agopian said. Sending out such a phone message comes next, along with a letter sent home to parents with students.

“Of course parents would be notified [right away], but first, it’s important to confirm the case,” Agopian said. “Communication with the parents is our utmost priority always, but first we need to make sure panic like this doesn’t happen again.”

The actual phone message, which came from Abbott and not from district headquarters, told parents that a case of the H1N1 virus had been confirmed at Abbott, and that precautionary measures were taking place. The message also reminded parents to keep sick children at home.

It did not say “please come and take your child out of school,” Agopian said, but he called the parents’ reactions understandable.

He said parents can help by not sending sick children to school and by having them examined by a medical practitioner.

Affected school sites so far include Lincoln, Will Rogers, Helen Keller, Abbott and Mark Twain elementary schools and Hosler Middle School. A second case at Abbott was a false alarm.

The school district’s maintenance operations staff have been trained by the county Department of Public Health in sanitizing and cleaning classrooms and common areas, such as lunch areas, bathrooms, libraries, computer labs and offices.

When an H1N1 virus case is reported, district staff cleans and sanitizes all hand rails, tube columns, gym areas, elevators, nurses offices, drinking fountains, door handles, light switches, and lunch tables.

“Parents can rest assure that the school district is equipped with the proper materials to do the disinfecting at every school site,” Agopian said.

At the elementary school site level, usually one or two areas require disinfecting. Secondary school sites usually require several more areas to be cleaned since students travel from classroom to classroom throughout the day.

It’s a lot of work, but it’s done in a timely manner, Agopian said.

So far, there have not been any two cases at any one site, he added.

“What we want is for parents to know that our schools are safe,” Agopian said. “We want them to know that we have bent over backwards to make sure our schools are safe. … That we are doing everything we can to follow all of the county’s guidelines to keep our district and our students as safe as we can.”

Along with fliers released by the county on the H1N1 virus, parents are being advised to encourage their children to wash their hands frequently with soap and water, to cover their mouths when they cough or sneeze and to avoid touching their eyes, nose or mouth since germs spread that way. In preventing the swine or seasonal flu, people of all ages should also avoid close contact with sick people, and if they are sick, stay home and rest for at least 24 hours after the fever ends.

According to health officials, the swine flu and seasonal flu symptoms are similar. They include fever, cough, sore throat, runny or stuffy nose, body aches, headache, chills and fatigue. However, people diagnosed with the H1N1 flu also have diarrhea and vomiting. Those symptoms can get better without seeing a doctor, officials say, but some symptoms can be dangerous if they are not treated quickly. If the symptoms are severe, people should see a doctor.

The school district is on top of things and is making sure that school site administrators and officials know the protocol in its entirety, Agopian said.

“All I can say is that we’re doing all we can to make sure that we don’t cause a panic again.”

People also need to remember that the hundreds of cases of seasonal flu right now outnumber swine flu cases in the entire region, and compared to the number of confirmed cases in surrounding school districts, “six is a very low number for a district of our size,” Agopian said.