ARVADA — Excel Academy parents were relieved Sunday to have kids homebound this week after hearing one of their own was sickened with the H1N1 virus — or “swine flu” — after a school field trip to New York.
A group of Excel Academy seventh- and eighth-grade students went to New York the week of April 20 on a field study to learn about immigration.
The boy sickened with the virus was among a group of kids who went to Ellis Island and other landmarks during the school trip, said Carrie Toennis, the charter school’s board president.
As parents checked e-mail and voice mail over the weekend, many reached out to one another, happy that school hasn’t been in session and exposure was limited. Last week was spring break.
“It has me very upset. I just don’t want this to go further,” said Susan Horton, who has a seventh-grader and a fifth-grader at Excel. Her child is friends with the kid sickened with H1N1 virus. “I’m glad they’re being proactive.”
The boy has not been identified, but parents who know the family say he’s mostly been home and being treated.
The New York field trip is part of the K-8 charter school’s mission to give students hands-on experiences, Toennis said. A group of sixth-graders went to the Ocean Institute in Dana Point, Calif.
“Like every parent, there’s a part of you that thinks, ‘Oh, it’s finally hit.’ You have a sense of trepidation,” said Toennis, who has a sixth-grader and a kindergartner at Excel. “You don’t want to get sick, but you can’t stop your life. You have to find a happy medium.”
Toennis said she’ll work with health officials to determine messages to families whose kids are at home this week.
“You don’t want to go on vacation. You kind of want to keep them home. Watch your kids, make sure you don’t miss any signs,” she said.
Gary Finiol was tossing the football in a park near the school Sunday with his 13-year-old son, Jackson, who is a seventh-grader at Excel.
Jackson wasn’t a part of the New York trip, but said he played with some of the kids over the weekend. So far, he felt fine.
“I don’t think it’s that bad,” Jackson said.
Gary, too, wasn’t worried. Except for adjusting his work schedule to accommodate him this week.
“There seems to be out-of-proportion attention for this,” he said.
Allison Sherry: 303-954-1377 or asherry@denverpost.com
