St. Mary's School closed because of flu-like outbreak

Thu, Oct 29, 2009    to del.icio.us

SPRING LAKE — For the second time in less than a week, a local school has closed due to illness.

St. Mary's Catholic School, 421 E. Exchange St., is closed today and Friday.

Last week, Grand Haven Area Public Schools closed and sanitized three of its buildings due to increasing flu-like symptoms among students. White Pines and Lakeshore middle schools, and Robinson Elementary School were closed Friday. All three reopened Monday.

St. Mary's Principal Michael DeVitt said about 22 percent of the parochial school's student body was absent Wednesday.

"It didn't start that way, but the kids kept getting ill as the day went on," DeVitt said. "We had one classroom that had one case of pink eye. A lot of the students had upset stomachs, headaches and other flu-like symptoms — but nothing that was identifiable."

Although it is unknown at this time if any of the cases are related to the H1N1 flu virus, DeVitt said the Grand Rapids Diocese encouraged closing the school if the absentee rate eclipsed 20 percent.

Wednesday's 22-percent "out sick/or leaving sick" rate means about 36 students in St. Mary's 165 student body were afflicted.

On Monday, the school attendance records showed a 15-percent absentee rate. That number grew to 17 percent on Tuesday.

"There was some misery today in some of those poor kids," DeVitt said Wednesday. "We have our custodians working and sanitizing all surfaces."

The school's three school buses were also being thoroughly cleaned, the principal said.

DeVitt said no staff members were affected, as of Wednesday.

"This is my 24th year in education and I've never experienced anything like this — not even close," he said. "We're going to hope that this four-day break gives kids time to heal up and gives kids that aren't sick yet some time away from the germs."

DeVitt said St. Mary's classes are scheduled to resume on Monday.