Officials continue to investigate school illness incident at Olathe elementary school

By Greg Payne

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    JOHNSON COUNTY, Kansas (KCTV) — A Johnson County elementary school remained closed today after more than 150 students and staff became ill at Clearwater Creek Elementary School earlier in the week.

On Wednesday Clearwater Creek Elementary School in Olathe had more than 25% of their students call out sick.

With the large number of absences, the district decided to close the school down for the week as they work to determine what caused the sicknesses.The Johnson County Health Department says the students were experiencing gastrointestinal issues.

Common symptoms include pain in the abdomen, diarrhea, constipation, bloating, weight loss and excess gas.Part of the department’s investigation included sending surveys to parents and collected food samples from any food left over from Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday.

We spoke with a parent whose child wasn’t sick but says it is tough not knowing the cause of this sickness.

”It would be nice to know exactly what’s going on, I know they don’t want everyone in a panic, but to know what this survey was about, were they ruling something out or do they already know what it is, instead of just making everything so vague and gray,” says Erin Wright.

The tentative plan is to reopen school on Monday.

”School’s closed of course, so I don’t have an update on how many people are still ill today. So, I think it will really be up to the school to see how things look on Monday but any decision on whether or not they’ll hold school will be up to them at this point,” says Charlie Hunt of the Health Department.

The Health Department suggests any child that is feeling sick to stay home and for parents to monitor any symptoms.

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