Grief counselors will be on-site at Harvey Austin, School #97, on Monday to help students and staff deal with the death of a student there, who died Saturday after apparantly contracting swine flu, or the H1N1 virus.
A 9-year-old girl from Buffalo remains in critical condition at the Pediatric ICU at Women and Children's Hospital.
Kimberly Wells, a parent whose daughter attends Harvey Austin, says she is keeping her daughter out of school for the short remainder of the year. She will only allow another daughter in high school to go to Burgard for her final exam.
"They (should) close the schools and end the year," she says. "They can cut down on the percentage of the virus going around from the contact of the children, and the ones that have to finish their exams, let them go into school and then evacuate them out."
But despite the tragic death, the Erie County Health Department does not recommend schools close in these circumstances. Swine flu cases have been confirmed in eleven out of 63 Buffalo Public School locations, and suburban and private schools are seeing it too.
The health department and school districts are urging parents to keep their children home if they are experiencing flu-like symptoms. This includes keeping children home once summer activities begin too.
Click on Swine Flu at the top of your screen for more information.