Fears over a 13-year-old middle school student's probable case of swine flu has closed two charter schools in Miami-Dade County today.
The Miami-Dade school district is taking no chances after learning that the third suspected swine flu case was a 13-year-old female student in their school system. The other two suspected cases are a 47-year-old relative of the girl, who makes frequent trips to Mexico, as well as a 91-year-old woman.
School district spokesman John Schuster says Doral Academy Charter Middle School and Doral Academy Charter High School were ordered closed after it was found that the middle school student possibly had the disease.
Both schools were scrubbed and sanitized over the weekend, and the high school was ordered closed as a precaution, since the younger student may have interacted with the older students.
"There is a degree of interaction between the middle and senior high school students and the child being of an age where more than likely she would have acces for some classes to the senior high school site," Alberto Carvallo, school superintendent for Miami-Dade said.
One Doral Academy high school student says she was shocked when she learned of the possible diagnosis.
"It was scary to know that there's a student in our middle school, our sister school, that could possibly be infected with the swine flu," student Alejandra Navarro said. "It just scared me, it took me by surprise."
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Schuster says that when the schools will reopen will depend on test results from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
About 1,800 students attend the two schools.
Hallandale High School in Broward, which shut down last week after a 17-year-old student was confirmed to have the swine flu, will remain closed through Wednesday.
