Absences Shut Down Standing Rock school

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Absences Shut Down School
Anne Kelly
10/7/2009

The weekend came early for the 785 students in the Standing Rock school district. Both the high school and the elementary school have been shut down until next week because so many kids have been absent...many due to illness. Medical reporter Anne Kelly traveled to Fort Yates and joins us with more.

Of the 785 students in the school district, 159, or about 20 percent missed school Monday. Superintendent Terry Yellow Fat says that peak came after a week of growing absences among students and staff.

Yellow Fat says one of the final straws was when the local hospital called and asked the school to advise students and their families to stop coming to the clinic with flu symptoms because it was overwhelmed. As to why there are more absences than usual this year, Yellow Fat says he blames it on the flu.

"I`m not saying we have H1N1, but flu," says Yellow Fat. "We`ve got student with fever in school, vomiting in some cases. They`re taken immediately home, just from personal experience I think its hit a lot sooner than usual."

While classes within Standing Rock schools are canceled, school activities haven`t been.

Bismarck schools say they haven`t had any more absences than usual.

http://www.kfyrtv.com/News_Stories.asp?news=34511

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Re: Absences Shut Down Standing Rock school

Update of H1N1 in schools

KVLY-TV
updated 12:15 p.m. CT, Thurs., Oct . 8, 2009

Officials say schools in Fort Yates, south of Bismarck, have closed for the rest of the week because of the number of students absent, believed to be due to the flu.

Keith Johnson is the administrator of the Custer Health District, which includes the Fort Yates area. He says officials don't recommend closing schools due to the flu, but he says they expect "these kind of situations" as the flu season progresses.

The three Fort Yates schools have an enrollment totaling more than 700 students. In Grafton, Superintendent Jack Maus said 57 of 282 high school students; along with 10 teachers and staff members and 55 of about 260 middle school students were absent with flu symptoms and colds. He said one case of Swine Flu, or H1N1, has been confirmed. Cross country and volleyball practices, as well as a junior high football game, were canceled.

The state Health Department says 125 Minnesota schools reported outbreaks of the flu in the last week of September, about 10 fewer than the week before. The metro area again had the most reported school outbreaks, with 19 in Ramsey County, 14 in Hennepin County and 13 in Dakota County.

The Health Department defines a school outbreak as when 5 percent or more of the students are out with a flu-like illness, or three children in an elementary classroom are out. The department released new flu statistics on Wednesday.

Despite the slight downtick in school outbreaks, the flu continues to spread in the state. As of October 3, 336 people have been hospitalized with confirmed cases of the Swine Flu, 76 of them since September 1.

More North Dakota communities are running out of seasonal flu vaccine. Add Jamestown and Bismarck to the list of cities out of the shots.

Fargo health officials say they have enough seasonal flu vaccine, and expect limited amounts of H1N1 vaccine to begin arriving next week. Those doses are earmarked for health care workers.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33218382/ns/local_news-fargo_nd/