Page 16 - School Planning & Management, November 2017

FACILITIES { LEARNING SPACES }
DON’T TOUCH THAT!
Your mom was right. There are germs everywhere. Don’t touch them. And don’t touch your face.
YEEICCH. Germs, germs, everywhere.
Do you have any idea of the na- ture of the millions of germs laying around on the floor, tables, counters and other surfaces that you come in contact with each and every day? Well, your mom was right. If you touch those germs, they might make you sick, along with the students and teachers who learn and work in your district’s schools.
By Michal Fickes
Not all germs, microbes, bugs or pathogens are vicious, but some are. It’s important to clean up the nasty ones.
Hold your breath. Here are some germ facts you are not going to like.
According to Darrel Hicks, LLC, author of “Infection Prevention for Dummies,” germs come in a variety of forms. Hicks is an expert consultant in the field of cleaning and disinfecting. In his book, Hicks defines three particularly nasty microorganisms or
bugs are bacteria, fungi and viruses. The book defines each:
Bacteria are single-celled organisms that sustain themselves as parasites, forms of life that exist by attaching themselves parasitically to hosts. Bacteria also form bacterial spores, which have thick outer walls that can survive in hostile environ- ments that would otherwise kill unpro- tected bacteria.
Fungi take the form of single and
16 SCHOOL PLANNING & MANAGEMENT / NOVEMBER 2017
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