The Washoe County School District (WCSD) reports a gastro-intestinal illness outbreak was declared at Caughlin Ranch Elementary School last week.
They couldn't say which GI illness it was, but they said the school was not closed.
WCSD says they are doing a deep clean of the school and they don't know how many children were affected. Margaret Allen, Director of Student Health Services for WCSD says, "We started seeing a couple [kids] maybe in the same classroom, so then we watched it closer and then maybe there was some teachers and staff ill with the same symptoms; so that's when the health district said, 'We're going to call this an outbreak.'"
Phil Ulibarri, Public Information Officer for the Washoe County Health District, confirmed there was a GI illness outbreak at the school. He said it's typical to see these kinds of outbreaks after the summer.
Ulibarri said the Health District is asking the school to follow hand washing and sanitary protocol, as well as to exclude sick children from class.
With the current outbreak, it's recommended sick students stay home for 48 hours. Allen adds, "We know how important attendance is for them, but we also want to make sure we're not encouraging outbreaks by allowing students to be at school when they're ill."
