Approximately 1,000 students at Stafford High School in Virginia called out absent this week, due to a flu-like illness, prompting district officials to cancel all of this weekend's activities.
"Due to the high number of student and staff illnesses reported this week, all Stafford High School activities and athletics scheduled through Sunday, October 23, are canceled," according to a Friday message posted on Stafford High's official Facebook account.
Moving forward, Stafford High officials announced they would continually track the rate of illness over the weekend and then reassess the conditions for school availability on Monday.
According to NBC 4 Washington, Stafford High — located just outside of Fredericksburg, Virginia — has a total student enrollment of 2,100, which means almost half of the school's population either missed some or all of this week, due to illness.
A school spokesperson confirmed that some Stafford High staff members are also suffering from flu-like and/or gastrointestinal symptoms, according to NBC 4.
At the time of this writing, it's unknown how many of Stafford's illness cases involve the COVID-19 virus.
As Newsmax chronicled this week, individual states — and not the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — determine vaccine requirements regarding COVID-19 for their school districts.
The CDC "only makes recommendations for use of vaccines, while school-entry vaccination requirements are determined by state or local jurisdictions," according to agency spokesperson Kate Grusich, via The Associated Press.
The Virginia Department of Health is reportedly working with Stafford High officials, in terms of exploring the root causes of the illness breakout.
© 2026 Newsmax. All rights reserved.