Flu/Strep Hitting Local Schools Hard: 202 Absent One Day at LG

Area schools are noticing an uptick in student absences due to sickness. 

According to La Grange ISD Superintendant Bill Wagner, 202 students were absent from school last Friday alone. Fayetteville ISD had so many students absent last week that Superintendent Jeff Harvey asked parents to keep their children home on Thursday and Friday in an effort to stop the disease from spreading.

Wagner and Harvey said most of the students reported being sick with the flu and strep. Wagner said La Grange ISD began noticing an increase in sick students at Hermes Elementary and La Grange Intermediate last Wednesday, when 70 students in those grades failed to show up to school. By Friday that number rose to 99 (on that campus), although on Monday it fell to 80. During the same time period at La Grange High School, absences went from 34 last Wednesday to 71 on Monday.

“It appears to have made its way through the younger grades and now is at the high school campus,” Wagner said.

Harvey said Fayetteville ISD typically sees about 10 absences in a normal day. The school has less than 250 students enrolled.

“We had 42 out on Wednesday and basically closed the school on Thursday and Friday,” Harvey said.

That measure appears to have helped because on Monday the number of absences at Fayetteville fell to 13.

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