Sixth-grade center to close Friday; officials seek cause of illness

UPDATED AT 2:47 p.m. THURSDAY:

Seymour Community Schools' Sixth-Grade Center will be closed Friday because of a gastrointestinal illness that's affected 70 students and two teachers.

The rest of Seymour Community Schools, including the seven- and eighth-grade building at Seymour Middle School, will remain open Friday.

"We've not seen the problem at any of the other schools, yet" Superintendent Teran Armstrong said Thursday afternoon. "We're keeping an eye on them as well."

Sixth-graders were being given a letter for their parents outlining the problem and an information sheet about norovirus, which is often the culprit in gastrointestinal illnesses.

UPDATED AT 2:20 p.m. THURSDAY:

An additional 10 students at Seymour Middle School's sixth-grade center were sent home Thursday with a gastrointestinal illness, school officials have said.

That means 70 of the school's 300 students were out sick because of the illness. Two teachers were also reported sick from what's thought to be a virus not related to the H1N1 flu.

ORIGINAL POST at 1 p.m. THURSDAY

Jackson County Health Department is working with Seymour Community Schools to determine and remove whatever is causing a gastrointestinal problem among students at Seymour Middle School’s Sixth Grade Center on South Poplar Street.

Superintendent Teran Armstrong said the illness does not appear to be H1N1 flu.

“We think it’s a virus,” Armstrong said Thursday, adding the illness does not appear to be a case of food poisoning.

About 60 students were out sick Thursday, she said.

Armstrong said custodial staff are going from room to room with disinfectant in an effort to eradicate the problem. Students are being moved out of classrooms as the cleaning takes place and then being returned to those rooms once they’ve been cleaned.

Environmentalist Paul Ramsey of the local health department is expected to send a sample to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., to determine what’s causing the illness, Public Health Coordinator Lin Montgomery said Thursday.

“Paul works with officials from the school, Schneck Medical Center and Indiana State Department of Health as an infectious control team to monitor any kind of communicable disease,” Montgomery said. “He’s working to identify the problem.”

For the full story, see Friday's edition of The Tribune and watch TribTown.com for updates.