North Texas

Stomach Bug Shuts Down North Texas School

A North Texas school is shutting down Friday because of a stomach virus.[[366922911,C]]

Sixty-five students at Celeste Elementary in Celeste have come down with the bug. Celeste is located about 15 miles north of Greenville in Hunt County.

Teachers first started noticing signs of the virus Wednesday afternoon. They say when 50 students didn't show up to school today, they knew it had spread.

In addition to the 50 students who never made it to class Thursday, another 15 had to be sent home after developing symptoms.

“I just thought it was typical sickness going around, but since they closed the school, I guess it’s kind of getting serious,” parent Vicki Semmler said.

“We talked with a couple parents that had taken their kids to the doctor and they said it was just a virus,” Celeste ISD Superintendent Brad Connelly said.

Celeste Elementary will be closed Friday after about 65 students came down with a stomach virus. Cleaning crews will spend the day disinfecting the building.

Connelly says custodial and maintenance staff will deep clean the elementary school Friday to try to stop the virus from spreading.

“We’re trying to do our due diligence and make sure that anything we can do to stop the spread of it from our own kids. We want them to be healthy and at school so that’s why we chose to go ahead and stop school tomorrow,” Connelly said.

There are 235 students attending the school.

Connelly says the virus has mainly affected pre-k and kindergarten classes, but started to spread to other grades Thursday.

He says he plans to apply for an attendance waiver so they won't have to make up the day later this year.
 

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