GILLETT (NBC 26) — The Gillett School District called off classes on Friday due to illnesses going around classrooms.
Thursday afternoon, the district posted the following on Facebook saying they would be closed due to illnesses and staffing issues.
In another post, the district also said 16 staff members were out sick and more were not feeling well.
For 7th grader Jeremiah Froelich, it comes as no surprise that classes in Gillett were canceled Friday.
"Everybody is getting sick for some reason and we're just dropping like flies at this point,” Jeremiah said. "It makes sense because Thursday most of the teachers were sick and we had to merge bunch of classes together because those specific teachers were gone. Two or the three classes met in the auditorium and played a game."
For Jeremiah’s father, he shares his reaction to school closing.
"There's a lot of people that are sick. Like half the school so that was kind of shocking,” said Mark Froelich.
He said as soon as parents heard the news, everyone scrambled to figure out what to do about childcare.
"I work nights so we were able to take a shift but I've heard from other parents who've had to find a quick babysitter,” Mark said.
An Oconto County doctor explains how the spread of respiratory illnesses is being seen locally.
"Mostly in the clinic we've run across influenza, RSV is a big one in the kiddos. I’ve seen some kiddos after they’ve gone to the ER, but I’ve heard a lot of kids have gone to the ER for the RSV mostly. Influenza has been more positive recently, obviously, we get the flu shot for that one. Those are the biggest ones. However, I've also worked urgent care recently and everyone is coming in with a multitude of respiratory viruses which a lot of them we don't know what they are,” said Dr. Stacee Goedtel Birr, Family Medicine Physician at HSHS St. Clare Memorial Hospital Prevea Oconto Falls Health Center.
The doctor goes on to share that this year it’s been busier with a lot of respiratory illnesses.
So as the Gillett community powers through the sniffles and coughs, Jeremiah hopes everyone can recover as soon as possible.
"I honestly wish everybody in school gets better because we can't keep missing more days of school like this,” said Jeremiah.
NBC 26 reached out to the Gillett School District multiple times on Friday but no one from the district responded.
