Class is out early for one Kansas school this holiday season.
Dexter Schools USD #471 announced Monday that they dismissed students and staff three days early for winter break due to widespread illness. Classes are scheduled to resume Monday, Jan. 5.
"We are going through a tremendous amount of sickness right now and it seems to be spreading at a very high rate," the Facebook announcement reads, in part.
"Not only are we concerned with student and staff sickness now we don't want to continue to spread the sickness and end up with students taking it to their extended families (grandma and grandpa) over the holiday break," the post adds.
FDA expands approval of Moderna's RSV vaccine to some adults under age 60
K.B. Criss, the school's superintendent and principal, told ABC News that the rural K-12 school has between 250 and 300 students, and he believed around 25% to 35% of students were absent within the first hour of school Monday morning.
"The phone was ringing off the wall of kids being sick," he said. "I think by nine o'clock, we had between 40 and 50 families call, and that's a large percent of our student body."
Criss added that most of the illnesses seemed to be respiratory, but staff and students were experiencing a wide variety of symptoms.
"The symptoms were ranging from all over the place. We had staff that was not only throwing up, but had diarrhea. We had body aches, fevers, bronchitis, strep throat, and the one common thing with all of it was terrible headaches," Criss said, adding that other leading symptoms included congestion, coughs, and fever.
Some students and staff were diagnosed with RSV and the flu, according to Criss.
According to the school's website, free testing is available for Flu A/B, RSV, Strep A and COVID.
Kansas currently has a low level of respiratory illness across the state, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Nationally, "the amount of acute respiratory illness causing people to seek health care is low," according to the CDC, as is COVID-19 activity.
"Seasonal influenza activity continues to increase in most areas of the country," according to the CDC, while RSV activity is increasing "in many Southeastern, Southern, and mid-Atlantic states."
Dexter Schools USD #471 is located about 70 miles southeast of Wichita, near the Oklahoma border.
LATEST POSTS
- 1
Make your choice for the music application with the most amicable connection point! - 2Meet the astronauts about to make history on flight around the moon
- 3SF Chinatown's historic Empress of China building being revived into cultural campus
- 4Famous Kitchen Finishing Styles For 2024
- 5ByHeart infant formula recall tied to botulism outbreak puts parents on edge
- Why doing good also makes us feel good, during the holidays and beyond
- Flight cancellations: Full list of 40 airports hit by FAA cuts amid government shutdown
- 6 Travel Services for Colorful Get-aways: Pick Your Fantasy Escape
- Vagus nerve stimulation shows promise as a way to counter Alzheimer’s disease- and age-related memory loss
- Figure out how to Amplify Your Open Record Reward
- What we know about Jonathan Ross, the ICE agent who shot and killed Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis
- David Duchovny's new thriller has him stripping down at 65. But its chilling premise hits close to home.
- A 'Stranger Things' documentary covering the final season is on its way: Watch the trailer
- Abbott issues US device correction for some glucose monitors over faulty readings risk
