By Matt Sepic, St. Louis Public Radio
St. Louis – A Missouri school district has canceled classes for the rest of the week because too many students stayed home sick with flu-like symptoms.
Officials with the Jefferson County School R-VII district near St. Louis canceled classes after nearly a quarter of the system's 700 pupils called in sick Monday.
Health officials have not determined whether the students have the seasonal influenza or the new H1N1 swine flu strain, but Superintendent Tom Guenzler said the risk of even more people falling ill was too great so he decided to close the schools.
"There were a lot of kids coming to school ill, and they were on Tylenol and ibuprofen, and they were spreading the germs to other students, and that was a critical factor in our decision," Guenzler said.
Classes will resume next week, and Guenzler said the missed days will be made up at the end of the school year.