The discovery of bed bugs in five iPads prompted St. Paul Public Schools officials to issue a letter reminding parents and students to keep their devices clean.
“We apologize for this situation and the inconvenience it has caused,” said Kevin Burns, spokesman for the school district. “There is no indication of the presence of any additional pests in any other iPads. However, as the health and safety of our students and staff are our highest priorities, we felt it was responsible and prudent to ask families to help maintain the cleanliness of the devices.”
The iPads in question were found at Como High School, Burns said.
The letter, sent to all middle and high school families, gave the following instructions on cleaning the iPad:
- Take the iPad out of the case and vacuum debris around the case and keyboard.
- Using simple window cleaner, wipe down the case and keyboard entirely using paper towels.
- Place cleaned case on clean paper towels to let dry.
- Throw away paper towels and do not reuse. The ammonia-based window cleaner will kill any bacteria or pests.
- Take the iPad without the case and place a small piece of tape over the charging port and headphone port; spray water onto a paper towel (do not spray on pad itself).
- Wipe down entire iPad with wet paper towel and set on clean paper towels to allow for the iPad to dry off.
- Throw away paper towels used for wiping immediately following this step.
- Wash hands.
- Once clean and dry, put iPad back into case.
The iPads, used to support personalized learning in the classroom, were being distributed to students at the start of the school year.