Nearly 200 Princeton Middle School Students Come Down With the Flu

The flu has hit Princeton, New Jersey, and it has already infected nearly 200 local students.

185 students were absent at John Witherspoon Middle School last week, according to a report from Patch.com. The superintendent of Princeton Public Schools, Steve Cochrane, even sent a letter to parents notifying them that "more than 20 percent of our middle school students have been absent."

The New Jersey Department of Health did not recommend that the school be shut down completely. Yet in every effort to keep every student healthy and safe, Jeff Grosser, the Municipal Health Officer, did order a thorough cleaning of the schools, Patch.com says. To ensure the schools were cleaned as best as they could be the Princeton Public Schools' custodial staff used hospital-grade disinfectants.

Keeping all students and staff healthy does require a collaborative effort between the schools and the parents. If a guardian or parent notices their child is experiencing flu-like symptoms they recommend that they stay home until the fever has been gone for 24 hours (without the fever-reducing medication).

Also, they urged everyone to keep washing their hands especially before eating.