Cleveland Metropolitan School District has donated a sizable quantity of gloves, masks and other safety items to the Cuyahoga County Board of Health, doing what it can to help ease a shortage that medical professionals and others face during the COVID-19 outbreak.
The items were in nurses’ clinics in schools that have been closed under an order from Gov. Mike DeWine. CMSD kept enough of a supply to equip personnel such as security officers and staff distributing grab-and-go meals and will be able to re-stock the clinics when schools reopen.
CEO Eric Gordon says he approved donating the items in response to the community’s need. School nurses pulled together the supplies.
“It’s a national emergency; we’re helping out,” says Debbie Aloshen, CMSD’s director of health and nursing services. “This stuff needs to go to hospitals.”
The supplies included 6,000 vinyl gloves, several cases of masks, dozens of containers of antiseptic wipes, more than 100 containers and spray bottles of hand sanitizer, disinfectant and underpads for beds.
Mike Cottner, a nurse at several CMSD schools on the west side, helped separate, stack and log the supplies for pickup. He predicted the supplies would go fast, but would be valuable while they last.
“I worked in the Cleveland Clinic for 15 years,” he says. “You need this personal protective equipment.”
For resources and information on CMSD’s response to Coronavirus, go to clevelandmetroschools.org/coronavirus.
