The Great Smoky Mountain Journal
Source: Fox News
Posted: Tuesday, January 01, 2019 02:32 PM
Many East Tennessee Schools Closed Rest Of Week Due To Illness Including Knox, Anderson, Campbell
Anderson County Schools made the decision to close for kids and teachers on Thursday and Friday, announcing the closing on Tuesday. Administrators said Wednesday was meant to serve as a half-day for professional development, and officials wanted to give parents enough notice to find child care for the end of the week.
Still, the director of schools said the decision was a difficult one to make.
"I've been on the school board for 16 years, this is the worst season I remember," Dail Cantrell of the Anderson County School Board said. "This is a particularly violent flu strain this season."
Officials said up to 20 percent of students have called out sick in the past few weeks, forcing them to shut down so students can recover and crews can clean up germs.
"Our maintenance staff will be working around the clock to clean the desks, the hallways and basically disinfect the physical structure," Cantrell said.
On Tuesday evening, Fentress County Schools also made the decision to close schools for the rest of the week. But even when schools are open, officials from Anderson County echoed advice from across East Tennessee: "Stay at home, particularly if you have a fever," Cantrell said.
On Wednesday, Knox County and Sevier County school districts joined those that had decided to close, cancelling classes for both Thursday and Friday.
"It's just spread to the point where it's a little bit out of hand," Karns Middle School student Avery Hanson said Wednesday. "The teachers are very on edge, teachers have taken a lot of precaution. I'm going to stay home with my mom because we're trying to not get sick, fingers crossed."
A representative for Knox County Schools said Wednesday's attendance was 89.48 percent, but that the school system had record 572 staff member absences that required a substitute. KCS could not find substitutes for 31 percent of those absences.
Parents said sickness at the schools had grown worrisome for students who might catch a virus like the flu.
"Sending her to school, it's like sending her to a cesspool of bacteria," teacher and mom Bailey Hanson said of her daughter. "My worry is that people will see two days from school as a free ride to go expose your kids in other kid-friendly places."
Anderson County officials told Local 8 News they planned to re-assess absence numbers next week, but they said the biggest factor in deciding to close is teacher attendance because of a limited number of qualified substitutes.
Knox County Schools said Wednesday the system had used eight of their allotted inclement weather days for snow, illness and August 2017's eclipse.