Fever, chills, sniffly nose, cough, and drowsiness are all symptoms of the flu that have been knocking out students one by one. Lewis Cass High School has been taking a big hit in the loss of students due to Influenza A and B. Anyone could walk down the halls of Lewis Cass and hear sniffles, and coughing, and just feel the radiating drowsiness because of sickness. Whether it is a few short days of common cold symptoms or multiple weeks of bedridden sickness, students are hoping they do not catch this quickly spreading, long-lasting, horrible sickness.
Many students at Lewis Cass have been in and out of the school nurse’s office with many different symptoms. Though some students may just need ibuprofen for a nagging headache, or feel like they need to go home, school nurse, Amanda Schultz has seen just about all of it. She has been the person who has seen the impact first-hand and has dealt with many different levels of the flu. “The greatest increase in student visits to the nurse and absences was the week of Feb. 10, 2025. Thankfully the weather gave us a day off to rest at home,” Amanda says, “It’s hard to tell since today is our first day back what this week will be like. We came very close to having almost 20 percent of our students out due to flu symptoms last week which was the highest percentage for this 24-25 school year.” The Lewis Cass school district has been largely impacted by the flu in just the high school alone. For those who do not know, schools can reach a point where if enough students are out of school with illness, they will need to completely shut down the school for a certain amount of days or weeks required. This may seem drastic, but so many absent kids can cause many issues from their learning opportunities being lowered, or the increase of the risk of them spreading the virus. This information is from the Indiana Department of Education, “Per 512 IAC 1-2-2, public and accredited nonpublic schools are required to report to the local health department and the state attendance officer the percentage of student absences when the percentage of students absent from a school is equal to or greater than 20% of the enrolled students. Reports are not required on days immediately before or after a school vacation day or a scheduled instructional day that is canceled due to any weather-related emergency. Schools are to complete this report on any individual school that reaches the 20% absenteeism threshold and is not dependent on the entire school corporation reaching this threshold.” In summary, the document says that if a school reaches a certain percentage of students out with medical-related absences, then the school may need to shut down. Many students at Lewis Cass that have not caught the virus are worried about catching the flu this season. Mrs. Schultz has also given some suggestions on how to avoid catching the flu virus this school year. She says, “The biggest precaution is washing your hands. And not just for a few seconds but really spending about 20-30 seconds scrubbing your hands with soap and water. You should wash your hands before eating, and after the bathroom, and avoid contact with your nose, mouth, and eyes unless you just washed your hands. The second precaution would be avoiding close contact or sharing utensils, drinks, or towels with someone else who is sick.” Many other things can be done to at least delay and possibly prevent the flu. Some other things students may be watching out for are ways the flu can be spread. Amanda says, “The flu can be spread through three different ways: 1) Droplets meaning someone else sneezing or coughing and expelling these droplets 2) Contact with contaminated surfaces and not washing hands before touching your eyes, nose or mouth and 3) through the air particles. So get out and get some fresh air!”
From a student’s perspective, avoiding the flu can seem like a very challenging thing to do. What is even worse, is being a student who fell victim to this horrible virus. Mayce Armstrong, a sophomore at Lewis Cass, was out of school for almost two weeks with influenza A. She not only had the full list of symptoms but also mentioned that muscle weakness was one of her worst symptoms. Although many people may just think the basic list of symptoms is the only symptom you can have, that is false. There are so many other smaller symptoms that can impact different people in different ways. Fox59’s website reporter, Hannah Follman wrote an article about the rising flu cases in central Indiana. Follman says, “Both the CDC and the Indiana Department of Health are reporting very high levels of flu activity which is the most severe classification. Emergency room visits and hospitalizations are also up.” People are coming into the hospital with “non-typical” flu symptoms, and have been walking around with it, and could have just thought it was something else minor, and posed the risk of infecting many others. Mayce Armstrong was asked if anyone else in her house got infected. She mentioned, “My entire family got it.” This just goes to show how easily the flu spreads throughout homes and schools.
Whether you choose to avoid people completely, or you choose to live carefree, the flu can catch up to you in sneaky ways. It will make its way into your life, and give you a week of forced rest and healing. Whether you get an aggressive case, or just feel like you have a cold, flu cases continue to impact Lewis Cass and push students to be extra careful this flu season. Students should continue to take precautions so they can avoid getting the flu during this busy time of year. Lewis Cass is hoping for some quick recoveries from this quickly spreading, highly symptomatic, nearly non-avoidable virus.
