By Courtney McEachern

Around three hundred students in the Exeter Township School District were out sick with flu symptoms on Tuesday, Oct. 13 said superintendent of schools, Beverly A. Martin.

“We have had over the past week a significant rise in the number of flu cases. It is something that we are concerned about. We are looking day by day at the absentee list and we had 365 students district wide out today,” said Martin.

“That’s extremely high. That is eight percent. We are typically around two percent. And in certain buildings we were at 10 percent,” she added.

Martin said percentage is a little higher in the K-4 buildings. But is has hit all of the buildings.

She said that the doctors are not typically testing for H1N1.

“I guess it takes quite awhile and by the time the results are back, usually people are all better by then. But I think most of the medical community are telling their patients that if you have flu symptoms, it probably is H1N1 because the others forms of influenza are not prevalent at this particular time,” said Martin.

She said that the district sent home a lot of kids on Friday, Oct. 9, and more were absent after the weekend was over.

“We are doing what we can preventively.”

“We are following the guidelines from the Department of Health and at a point where it would go up dramatically, I would call the Department of Health and ask what is their recommendation in terms of should we be looking at closing,” said Martin.

The Exeter staff doesn’t appear to be having the same symptoms as the students, added the superintendent.

Visit the district’s Web site, http://www.exeter.k12.pa.us, for parent information about H1N1.