Idaho Falls middle school sees high number of illnesses during flu season

We are well into the flu season. The most recent report from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that between about 6 million and 7 million people have been sick with flu in 2018-2019 season. Even though the CDC reports severity is lower than last season, o ne school in Idaho Falls is seeing an unusually high number of reported cases of flu and strep.

“My daughter was telling me that there were only a few students in a couple of her classes and she was concerned a lot of people were out sick,” said Fawn Newton, a parent of an eighth-grader at Taylorview Middle School.

Newton says that when she heard what happened she became concerned and made a phone call to the school.

“Because when one child comes home with the flu that means the next child, the family members, everybody’s going to be getting infected,” Newton said.

Friday morning her daughter woke up feeling under the weather.

“She got up this morning (and had a) 103.5 (fever),” said Newton.

Taylorview Middle School sent out an email on Friday that they are working closely with Eastern Idaho Public Health on the issue. The school said that they are not seeing high rates of absences at other schools. They also said that the flu does not seem to be localized to one area, but is widespread throughout the community.

“This week we have seen some high absence numbers from Taylorview (Middle School) specifically, it seemed to be connected to flu, colds and strep,” said Margaret Wimborne , spokesperson for Idaho Falls School District 91. “It’s not unusual to have absences this time of year, but what we’ve seen at Taylorview this week has been a little higher than normal.”

The school district said they are working to disinfect around the school.

“Make sure that we’ve got hand sanitizer and your disinfectant wipes in all of the classes and common spaces,” said Wimborne.

Idaho Falls School District 91 said that they also plan on bringing in custodial staff this weekend to do a deeper clean of the school.

But Newton still wants more done. Even if that means closing down the school.

“At this point I just hope they just close the doors and bring in professionals to really sanitize, disinfecting,” Newton said. “Maybe keep the kids away from each other for a few days so that they can get well enough to actually go back and be contagious still.”

She warns parents to make sure that they are extra cautious when their kids feel under the weather, especially during the flu season.

“We’re careful that when we have that fever (we say), ‘OK, stay home.’ But you need to look for symptoms ahead of time,” Newton said. “My daughter being fatigued the day before could’ve been an indicator that I should keep her home.”

For a list of symptoms related to the flu, click HERE.