As someone who travels to Africa for business often, I’ve been following the current Ebola crisis closely. The majority of the outbreak has been concentrated in Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Guinea.

Courtesy of www.cdc.gov

There have been other reported cases in other countries in Africa as well that are all contained and have all been in West Africa.

courtesy of www.cdc.gov

These facts, however, haven’t kept the St. Margaret Mary Catholic School in Louisville, Kentucky from being in an Ebola frenzy. A teacher at that school, Susan Sherman, has been taking humanitarian trips with her husband to Kenya. Kenya is a nation that is 4900 miles away from Sierra Leone in East Africa. Responding to parents’ concern that Susan was going to infect their kids with Ebola, the teacher was asked by the school to go into a 21 day paid quarantine and bring a doctor’s note saying that she was fully healthy before returning to the school.

Rather than be put into an unnecessary quarantine, Susan has resigned her position at the school.

When I tell people that I’m taking a trip to Africa soon, I’m constantly asked if I’m afraid of catching Ebola. I’m not traveling to the countries that have had the outbreak and I certainly would never put my life or health in danger. We all just need to use common sense in regards to this deadly disease and stop lumping all of Africa into the outbreak. We’ve had people in Dallas that have been infected – should all travel within the United States be stopped? I think not.

The parents at St. Margaret Mary Catholic School need to calm down and brush up on their geography.