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Eureka Springs Closes Schools Due to Illness

By: Cassidy Hodges
Updated: January 23, 2013
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Wide-spread sickness has caused a local school district to close its doors for the rest of the week.

According to administrators about a 6th of all students were out sick Wednesday, and it's not just the flu.

It all started last week.

Friday the school district was hit hard by illness, the most students out on Friday, January 18th.

Over the three day weekend, custodians sanitized the schools, hoping by Tuesday, the illness would be long gone.

But the condition took a turn today as the staff began calling in sick.

So without teachers to teach or students to learn the district decided to call it a week.

Four year old Wyatt, all smiles after school on Wednesday, because these doors won't be open again until next week.

Too much sickness, crawling all over classrooms in Eureka Springs.

"We were hovering around 28-30 kids who were sick and it's just been kind of a steady increase," says Clare Lesieur, the Principal at Eureka Springs Elementary

Last Friday, the elementary school had a staggering amount of absences, with everything from flu like symptoms to just sniffling and sneezing. 

"We had hopes over the weekend that we would be able to really decontaminate the building and come back after three days of the kids kind of being apart form each other," says Lesieur.

But no such luck.

"This week staff has been hit and so I have a lot of teachers and staff members out and today that really climaxed."

So the four day weekend, may save parents, like Brooke Patten, a few headaches.

"Definitely do not want him to get sick, especially since I'm pregnant. That would be bad," says Patten.

While the buildings are empty, custodians will wipe everything down for the second time this week.

"I've never experienced a closure for illness but we are treating it the same as a snow day, so we'll just follow our snow calendar and make these days up in the spring," says Lesieur.

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