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Posted on 10/05/2001 3:38:10 PM PDT by mrobison

Friday October 05 08:02 AM EDT Illness forces Kaneland to close

Illness forces Kaneland to close

Almost 20 percent of Kaneland High School's 830 students became ill Wednesday and Thursday, causing school to be canceled today.

The cause of the illnesses is unknown, but the Kane County Health Department performed tests for bacteria Thursday on the school's classrooms, water and air.

The health department also will interview both sick and healthy students to determine the source of the illness.

Sick students displayed flu-like symptoms including headaches, dizziness, nausea and diarrhea.

Kane County Regional Superintendent Clem Mejia supported the decision to close the school today.

"Unlike other situations where you know what the problems are, this is at this point a precautionary measure," he said. "At this point they are trying to eliminate any possibilities of what it might be."

Mejia said he expects results from the health department tests to be available within 24 hours.

Tom Runty, assistant superintendent for the Kaneland school district, said the sickness seems more like a virus than food poisoning, which originally was considered to be the cause.

The health department is inspecting the cafeteria, though no pattern has formed that would indicate the illness is caused by food or water contamination.

"They'll go through the cafeteria with a fine-toothed comb," Runty said.

The school sent out a survey asking students what they ate Wednesday and passed out free bottled water Thursday in case it does turn out to be related to food or water. The school also did not allow leftovers from Wednesday's Philly cheese steak lunch to be served Thursday.

If it is a virus, it might have spread at last weekend's homecoming dance and football game, which 500 students attended, Runty said.

The halls were quiet Thursday because a routine school-wide drug check had all of the classrooms on lockdown, but groups of teachers still could be seen walking down the hallways, taking guesses at what is causing the illnesses.

Students, meanwhile, came up with hypotheses of their own.

Sophomore David Pittan said there isn't even a major problem, and that most of the sick people were just trying to get some time off school.

"It's all in their heads," he said. "People are going to take advantage of all the others being sick. I ate here yesterday and drank the water, and I'm fine."

Alex Meyer, a senior, agreed in part with Pittan's theory but does feel there is something going around.

"I was thinking some of this might be psychological," Meyer said. "You know, kids feeling sick because others were. But there were some kids who looked really bad. You can't make up looking that bad."

Senior Lindsay Whitmer said she thinks the problem is in the water, and that the football players got it the worst because they drink so much water during practice.

In class, "(players) were leaning over their chairs," she said.

Sophomore Melissa Daniels is pretty sure there must be something going around the school, because she was one of the students who went home early.

Daniels said her stomach hurt, so a nurse took her temperature and told her to see a doctor if she vomits or experiences diarrhea.

"She's never sick," said her mother, Christine Daniels. "That's why I was surprised when she called."

Daniels left the school under her own power, but a couple of students were brought out in wheelchairs and helped into vehicles.

Sophomore Christina Hodal said that the drug testing going on during the day brought a new problem into the situation.

"We were locked down and this girl passed out in class," she said. "We were like, 'Now what do we do?' "

Students who fainted during the lockdown were allowed to leave the room.

Hodal said she was nervous about being in school because she wasn't sure what was causing the illness.

"We don't know what it's from, so we don't know if we can eat the food or drink the water," she said.

"The students were interrogating the lunch ladies" about the safety of the food. "I felt so bad for them," she said.

Alex Meyer said the situation was worse because parents and students couldn't get information about it.

"I think they got more people worried by not telling people what's going on," he said.

Connie Meyer, Alex's mother, called him out of his creative writing class to take him and his sister Stacey, a sophomore, home because Stacey had a headache and his mother was worried.

"There were tears in her eyes," Meyer said. "She was scared, because nobody was giving her any answers."

Senior Jon Heckert and sophomore David Stouffer, both members of the cross country team, joined Hodal in bringing a bagged lunch to school Thursday.

Heckert said that he knew of five students who went to the hospital but that they were all released by the end of the school day.

Though no members of the cross country team had gotten sick by Thursday afternoon, Stouffer complained that the illness still affected his life because of the students who were vomiting in the hallways and bathrooms.

Alex Meyer, a cross country runner, saw the effects of the illness during practice on Wednesday.

"I saw a bunch of kids on the football team getting sick," he said. "One of my friends was throwing up. This morning when I came to school, nobody from the football team was there."

Recently, schools in Elgin, Aurora, Barrington and St. Charles have found mold in their buildings that were viewed as a potential health risk and led to closures or renovations.

Regional Superintendent Mejia warned against comparing Kaneland's one-day closure to the mold problems of other schools. There has been no evidence found at Kaneland that would indicate mold is a cause of the students' illness.

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