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Sep 28, 2009 4:28 pm US/Central
Sick Students Prompt Fairview School To Close
FAIRVIEW (CBS 11 / TXA 21) ―
Students at a Collin County Middle School got an unexpected day off from classes.
Sloan Creek Middle School looked like a ghost town on Monday. After 250 of the school's 781 students were out sick with flu-like symptoms at the end of last week, the superintendent cancelled school Monday.
The cancelation of classes by the Lovejoy ISD meant seventh grader Courtney Allen spent her unscheduled day off on the couch. "All my friends were sick so when I did cheer all my stunt group was gone," she said. Over the weekend Allen started feeling sick herself and likely would have spent Monday at home anyway.
"We really felt like the three days would give everybody a chance to get well, so we'll be ready to go tomorrow," explained Lovejoy ISD spokesperson Cindy Booker. She said that 14 teachers were also sick on Friday. The district brought in extra cleaning crews over the weekend to disinfect the building.
In the Lovejoy ISD, Sloan Creek is the only school reporting widespread illness. The rest of the district's schools were open Monday, although a few reported slightly higher than average absences.
Dion Dicristofaro's daughter is one of the middle schoolers fortunate not to be sick. He thinks the district made the right call. "If it's going to take a couple days to clean out the school, I'm all for it," he said. "We've been scrubbing the hands everywhere we go. We go to soccer practice and come back and use the hand sanitizer. Try to keep things clean."
While many of the sick kids reported flu-like symptoms, there is no confirmation that the illnesses were from the H1N1 Virus. But North Texas health departments are considering any flu cases at this point to be H1N1.
Sloan Creek Middle School will be back open on Tuesday, but all extracurricular activities are cancelled for Tuesday night.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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