Class Is Back In Session At Eiland Middle

LOUISVILLE, Miss. (WCBI) – It’s still not known what caused dozens of Eiland Middle School students to get sick at school and go to the hospital last week.

Several state and local agencies have been on campus since last Thursday, trying to get to the root of the problem.

On Monday, the Mississippi Department of Health and other emergency management personnel were back at the school.

Students and teachers were also back at school Monday, and while we were there, no one left sick.

Although the district has utilized the state’s full resources in this event, the mysterious substance of the sickness still remains a mystery.

“We really just don’t have a cause agent or a reason for what happened last week,” says Dr. Robert Curry, Central Region Health Officer for the Mississippi Department of Health.

Desks are filled on Monday, days after an unknown sickness cleared classrooms and packed the emergency room.

“Evaluations, they really were on conclusive samples were sent to Jackson, which basically, shows nothing and in turn, the building itself was swept and failed to show anything really, so everything was pretty much normal.”

“We’ve received information from the State Department of Health that we may not be able to identify that exact instance or product that created this problem,” says Winston County EMA Director Buddy King.

Superintendent Dr. Randy Grierson says the district has gone through every possible channel to make sure students and staff have a safe school environment.

“We’ve used the National Guard Civil Support Team, they came in and swept the building, checked for any kind of chemical that’s on this planet. Nothing was found to cause any disruption or cause any of the symptoms that we were, that we’ve been alerted to.”

On Monday, even more safety measures are in place.

“We searched every room, every square inch of it. We searched students individually, but just tried to go through every route to see, to make sure because that was a lot of the other questions. Is it okay? If it’s not that they didn’t find anything, then was it possible that someone was bringing it in?”

The district and agencies say this is an ongoing process, but it’s not the first time something like this has happened.

“This has happened before in other places in the state. We’ve received direction from the state, that they appreciate the depth that we’ve gone to, the transparency that’s been applied here, everyone knows of our situation.”

The Governor has also been receiving regular briefings on the situation in Louisville.