Published: September 28, 2009 09:29 pm      

Flu bug slams local schools

BRIDGE CITY — Student absences have skyrocketed this month at area school districts, and many believe H1N1, or Swine Flu, has been a big reason why.

According to Dr. Jamey Harrison, Bridge City Independent School District superintendent, Bridge City High School has experienced a surge in student absenteeism over the past week and is only now beginning to return to near normal numbers.

“We’ve had a lot of absences at the high school last week,” Harrison said. “On Sept. 21, more than 120 students were sick just at the high school, and our average number of students absent is between 30 to 35 each day.”

The more than 120 students sick on Sept. 21 represents approximately 20 percent of the high school enrollment. By last Friday the number of students absent had decreased to 84 and the number had dropped to 70 students on Monday.

Harrison said there have been confirmations of Swine Flu in the district, but he said it is quite likely many of the student absences are indeed due to the H1N1 virus.

The Bridge City volleyball team had to cancel its scheduled match against Hardin last Friday because the team had been hit hard by illness, just like the rest of the high school.

“Kids are coming back to school in about three or four days after becoming sick,” Harrison added. “Which is good. They are staying home and letting the illness run its course. We recommend students remain home until they are fever free for at least 24 hours without using fever reducing medications.”

Harrison said the district is doing everything it can to help prevent the spread of the flu among students. In fact, the district even made a pre-emptive move when news of H1N1 first began circulating earlier this year.

“We installed hand sanitizer dispensers in every classroom before the end of last school year, when all of this started,” Harrison said. “It was just an added precaution.”

The Little Cypress-Mauriceville Consolidated Independent School District is faring the current flu bug relatively well, although, according to Debbie Stephenson, LC-M CISD student services coordinator, one campus recently experienced high levels of absenteeism.

“Little Cypress Junior High had a rough patch recently,” Stephenson said. “For a couple of days, the campus had about an 87 percent attendance rate which is far below normal. The other campuses had a dip in attendance, but nothing like that.”

Attendance in the West Orange-Cove Consolidated Independent School District remains consistent with a previous report in the Orange Leader earlier this month.

According to information provided by the district, 85 students were absent on Monday from West Orange-Stark High School, or 12 percent of the student enrollment which is 696 students at the campus. This is slightly higher than the 79 students reported absent on Sept. 17, the previous high.

According to information provided Rick Summers, Deweyville ISD superintendent, Deweyville Elementary has experienced a higher than normal number of absent students.

On Monday, the district said approximately 25 students were out of class at the elementary, which is approximately 8 percent of the campus enrollment. The middle school and high school campuses only reported a total of 15 more students out of class on Monday.