OCOEE, Fla.,None — Two Orange County charter schools were closed Friday because of a possible outbreak of the norovirus.
Workers were at Hope and Legacy charter schools in Ocoee on Friday, sanitizing the campuses.
Officials at district headquarters and the health department said closing an entire school for illness has never happened in Orange County before. A spokesperson for Hope and Legacy insisted that the virus is only impacting a small number of students, so WFTV wondered why they needed to shut down the entire school.
Hope and Legacy schools are normally filled with 550 students. When WFTV dropped by Friday, campus was empty. The director decided to shut it down because about 25 students suddenly became ill with a stomach virus.
"We actually started getting phone calls as well from parents," said Dain Weister of the Orange County Health Department.
County health officials got involved, and they said they suspect it's something called norovirus -- typically spread on cruise ships because of improper hand-washing.
But health officials said they've never recommended a school be shut down because of it, and they didn't do it in this case.
"It is a little bit unusual for this to happen," Weister said.
WFTV was told that the virus started with a student in the high school, who not only gave it to his classmates, but to his siblings who attend the elementary and middle schools.
The Orange County School District, which oversees charter schools, has never shut down a school because of an illness either -- not even during the swine flu outbreak in 2009 that killed at least 12 people countywide.
But charter schools have their own board of directors, and can close the school without district approval.
A spokesperson hired to do public relations for Hope and Legacy said school leaders wanted to take precaution and disinfect the school.
Health officials said that could've been done without canceling school for the 500 kids who weren't sick, but they can't blame the school for being cautious.
"It can spread very rapidly," Weister said.
Health officials said only a serious epidemic would prompt them to shut down a building, and at least half the school would need to be sick.
Recent inspections at Hope and Legacy show no major health violations. School leaders said they expect to re-open campus Monday.
WFTV
