LYNCHBURG, Ohio — Classes were canceled for the third time in two weeks as illness grips the rural Highland County community of Lynchburg.
Just this week, roughly 35% of Lynchburg-Clay Elementary School students missed school.
"It's been a rough month for us," Lynchburg-Clay Local School District Superintendent Jack Fisher said.
The district closed all three of its schools Friday following two days of an alarming number of absences, Fisher said.
On Thursday, 60 elementary students were out sick while close to 80 stayed home the day before. Fisher said the middle and high school are also seeing a number of illnesses, though not as many.
While most students are fighting the flu currently, some are dealing with strep. At the end of January, when the district closed for two days in a row, strep was the predominant issue, Fisher said.
"When you go to cancel school that's a serious decision but for a lot of districts, including ours especially if you're going to let the elementary off, a lot of those older siblings — high school and whatnot — provide childcare. We do not want to make it very tough on our families and so in talking with my team the decision was to shut down the entire district," he said.
Fisher said the situation was worse this time around because students weren't the only ones missing school.
"When you start subbing for your subs you know you’re kind of in a predicament," Fisher said.
Twelve staff members at the elementary school called out before classes started on Thursday before another four left during the day.
"Sixteen staff members — that’s a lot of staff that should have been at home when they started feeling the illness instead of coming in and spreading the germs," said parent Corey Barrett.
The dad of two said his family spent the past week fighting the flu and just recently started feeling better. He got a doctor's note to excuse his 8-year-old from school and keep her home.
"When it's coming down to the little heartbeats, you've got to do what you've got to do to keep them healthy," he said.
The district canceled activities at the elementary and middle school Friday, though high school activities continued. Meanwhile, the LC Youth Basketball game in Adams County is still scheduled to take place on Saturday, a decision Fisher said is out of the hands of the district.
"Many of our school personnel are involved with this organization. but the district recognizes that at times the league makes decisions regarding games outside the recommendation of the district," he said in a social media post to parents.
Concerned illnesses will only spread further, Barrett said he thinks the game should be postponed or canceled.
"If you’re missing school you need to cut the sports out," he said. "If we’re missing this much school — students are being out of school and they’re still playing sports, I don’t know. They’re still coming in contact with each other and their brother at home could have the flu too just because they ain’t feeling sick yet.”
As of now, the district is set to reopen on Monday. Fisher said he hopes the extended weekend will be enough time for students and staff to start feeling better.
"Our custodians have been tremendous. We're extra cleaning, we're doing all the things, well some of the things that we used to do during COVID," Fisher said. "But people are indoors, it’s winter time. They’re not only in school together but they’re together in a lot of other places."
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