‘Very unusual;’ Local high school to close tomorrow due to major flu outbreak

FAIRBORN — Nearly a third of local High School students were absent due to a major flu outbreak that prompted school officials to cancel school on Friday.

Fairborn High School will be closed tomorrow, Friday, Dec. 8 and all high school weekend activities are canceled due to a major flu outbreak.

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“We didn’t even have this outbreak during Covid, now we were off because the governor shut us down, there were some, a number of students and staff that got Covid, including myself, but nothing like this,” Fairborn City School District Superintendent Gene Lolli said.

More than 330 students were absent today, out of the 1000 high school students, according to Lolli. 20 staff members were also absent today.

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Lolli said this was a major flu outbreak, and that some students did test positive for Covid. After talking with the Greene County Health Department, they decided that canceling school and having a three-day weekend was the best option.

“Hopefully this will run its course over the weekend,” Lolli said.

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Lolli recommended that people take the three-day weekend to get better. The school is planning to sanitize all surfaces over the course of the weekend to avoid the spread of any more germs.

“I would highly recommend that parents monitor their kids, and anybody showing flu-like symptoms to make sure they take the appropriate medication to try and keep temperatures down and if it’s serious enough to contact their physician or take them to the emergency room,” Lolli said.

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The closure will only affect Fairborn High School, all other Fairborn schools are set to operate as normal. Lolli says the plan is to reopen on Monday.

“This is very unusual. It’s the first time for me in my career as an administrator to deal with something like this. But again, the safety of all staff and students are first and foremost,” Lolli said. “And we want to make sure that we do everything we can to let this run its course and get everyone healthy and back into school.”

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