O'FALLON, Mo. — With more than 100 students calling in sick on Wednesday, Assumption School in O'Fallon, Missouri, will close for the next two days.
Assumption School in O’Fallon reports 145 students and 7 teachers were out with the flu Wednesday.
Absences due to the flu started last week, and they grew day by day, Principal Pat Hensley said.
“We had so many students that were infecting one another. It’s best to actually remove them and then clean the desks,” Hensley, said.
She said the school is hiring a company to sanitize the building while it’s empty to make sure it’s safe when students and staff return Monday.
One parent said his seventh-grader normally has 22 students in his class. Wednesday there were only 8, so they gave themselves a nickname.
"We are the #Survivors. So that was their big line of the day, we are the hashtag-survivors. We made it through,” Jeff Smith said.
The school says kids are good to return to school when they’ve had no fever for 24 hours without medication, they’re eating normally and they function normally without rest.
Statewide, flu numbers are down significantly from the last two years, according to the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services, but the number of cases jumped significantly at the end of last month. You can read their report here.