Friday evening, a slew of students who go to Gifford Middle School suddenly got sick, vomiting and running high fevers, with some also having diarrhea.
The outbreak had all the earmarks of norovirus, a highly contagious infection which frequently occurs in confined spaces such nursing homes, schools and cruise ships.
Food poisoning was ruled out by parents comparing notes on the Gifford Middle School PTSA closed-group Facebook page, since not all of the sick children ate school food.
“We think it’s a virus,” said Deena Dick, a mother with twins who got sick a few hours apart.
By Sunday evening, “60-plus and more children were noted on a list and it is continuing to grow,” Dick said. One of her twins was weak but recovering on Sunday, but the other twin was still vomiting and had diarrhea.
“It was violent and so sudden. It was scary,” Dick said. “But I calmed down after speaking to other parents. Social media really saved us here.”
The parents contacted Gifford Middle School Principal Roxanne Decker and Superintendent Mark Rendell, who arranged to have the school cleaned with “special chemicals” on Sunday, Dick said. The district also “robo-called” parents Sunday afternoon, informing them school would be open, but to keep sick children home for 24 hours beyond the last symptom, Dick said.
Department of Health spokesperson Stacy Brock said on Monday, “We’re aware of the problem. We don’t know what it is. An investigation is just starting.”
An investigation consists of interviewing parents of students and testing stool samples from children, if the parent is willing to submit one, Brock said.
“We don’t do surface testing. We’re advising parents to keep ill children home from school,” Brock said. “Also frequent hand-washing. That is very important.”
The school district did not respond to a request for information in time for this article.
