Heritage School Closed Due to Illness

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Heritage School Closed Due to Illness

Fox59.com
October 6, 2009

Heritage Christian Schools is closing school Wednesday due to a high number of illnesses at their schools. Fall break begins on Thursday and they are hoping to bring the number of flu cases down by adding another day to the break.

They are not saying that is related to H1N1 it is mainly due to the number of students are sick with the flu. They want to kee whatever kids have from spreading.

They have about 1500 kids enrolled.

(they have 3 buildings....Elementary, Intermediate/Middle school with grades 5-8 & a high school). They are NOT saying it's all H1N1. Just a lot of sick kids. They want to keep whatever kids have from spreading. They have about 1500 kids enrolled. She could NOT give me a number on how many kids they had out.
Copyright ? 2009, WXIN-TV, Indianapolis

http://www.fox59.com/news/wxin-heritage-christian-school-closing-100609,0,6376761.story

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Re: Heritage School Closed Due to Illness

Carmel-Clay ramps up flu precautions
Updated: Oct 07, 2009 12:33 PM CDT


Carmel-The flu is taking a toll on schools in central Indiana.

Heritage Christian started its fall break early when it canceled classes Wednesday due to flu concerns. The school, which has about 1,500 students in grades K-12, issued a statement saying, "This is a precautionary measure taken on behalf of the administration in an effort to prevent the spread of illness to others in the HCS family."

There was some question about whether Clay-Carmel schools would close, but they remained open Wednesday. The head nurse there says the main concern was at Carmel High School, where the absentee rate spiked to ten percent Monday and 15 percent Tuesday.

The school adminstration could not say if the absenteeism was due to H1N1 flu, but they say it's playing a part. They also say the rates of illness they're seeing are typical for this time of year.

Prairie Trace Elementary School was seeing a lot of sick children Wednesday as well.

School and health officials say that the flu season may have started earlier this year, but they emphasize it's not a cause for alarm. It's what they see every flu season: fever, cough, body aches, chills and sneezing. The key difference between cold and flu is that the flu generates a fever. With H1N1, it can be 100 degrees or higher.

"We're just treating it all as the flu," said Patty Antle, Carmel-Clay head nurse. "Because in most cases, the doctors aren't testing to determine if it's the seasonal or H1N1 so we're just treating it all as the same and sending the kids home using our nursing judgment and asking parents to keep them home 24 hours without medication and without fevers before sending them back to school."

"We will not close school," said Steve Dillon, Carmel-Clay student services. "Last spring, H1N1 was new, the response was to close the schools, scrub it down, try to stop the spread. I think they rapidly found out that didn't stop the spread because kids get together. They go to the mall, they go to movies, they go to each other's houses. So all you're doing is disrupting the educational process."

Coming up at 5:00 pm, we'll report on the contingency plan the district is working on if the absentee rates continue to climb.

The Health Department is offering a toll-free hotline for the public to call for information on the H1N1 flu and its vaccine at: 1-877-826-0011 or TTY 1-888-561-0044. It will be available from 8:30 a.m. to 4:45 p.m., Monday-Friday.

http://www.wthr.com/global/story.asp?s=11274172#