Starr County leaders held a Tuesday evening press conference to announce the voluntary closure of all 14 Rio Grande City CISD schools amid rising fears of swine flu.
"This decision has been taken to ensure the safety and welfare of our children and our citizens," said Starr County Judge Eloy Vera.
RGC CISD Superintendent Roel Gonzalez announced the schools will be closed for the remainder of the week out of what he called an abundance of caution.
"I had one student who vomited on his answer sheet... he didn't want to go home because the test was so important... that's wrong," Gonzalez said.
Roughly 10,000 students make up the district's population.
Gonzales said 20 percent on Tuesday never even showed up for school.
"We had kids who were sick that couldn't come ... we had people who were scared to send their kids to school ... we had some who were sick at the school," explained Gonzalez.
As a result, the superintendent says the district is following the advice of county and state health leaders to shutdown the school system.
The high school, two middle schools, nine elementary schools and an alternative campus now join Veterans Middle School.
Veterans Middle School was closed Monday after two probable cases of swine flu turned up there.
And while the county is still waiting on official lab results to see whether they are confirmed cases of swine flu, Dr. Jose Vasquez with the county health department said the time for further proactive measures is now.
"We have been seeing more and more cases of regular Influenza A in our community... getween 50 to 60 cases of Influenza A," Vasquez said.
District central personnel employees will still report to work but only a skeleton crew will be at the schools.
TAKS testing has been postponed with the TEA's approval.
While new testing dates remain up in the air, the superintendent says his students' health is the number one priority.
Prom for the high school is expected to continue this weekend.
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