L'ANSE - L'Anse Area Schools dismissed students at 1:15 p.m. Monday for the rest of the week due to high absences caused by the flu.

"We do daily checks of our enrollment and our students that are out simply because for the past month or so we've been aware of the flu symptoms and the H1N1 virus, so we're sensitive to the fact that this virus can spread rapidly," said Ray Pasquali, L'Anse Area Schools superintendent. "We have a chart and we look at whether the numbers are going up, down or staying steady and we've seen a steady rise in the number of students out."

Pasquali said the number of students out took a significant jump over the weekend, with nearly a quarter of the students missing.

"The threshold that is recommended by the (Western U.P.) Health Department is between 20 and 25 percent," Pasquali said. "The Center for Disease Control recommends an approximate five days out to let it run its course out."

Because this is a dismissal, not a school closure, not all extracurricular activities will be cancelled. For example, the LHS volleyball team participated in its Class C district volleyball tournament last night and on Wednesday, $7,000 worth of frozen pizza will still be distributed as a fundraiser.

"Some of these things need to carry on," Pasquali said. "We try to use some discretion with regards to extracurricular activities, and most of them are cancelled."

Pasquali said another determining factor for the school was the high amount of instructor absences.

"We've also had a lot of teachers that have been sick, so we need to have a certain number of subs available," he said. "When you have enough of this it can also factor into a decision."

Baraga Area Schools was also out Monday and will remain out until Thursday.

All Keweenaw Bay Indian Community Headstart classes are cancelled for the week as well.

Terry Frankovich, health department medical director, said Watersmeet and Bessemer schools also are closed with high absenteeism rates.

Frankovich said H1N1 can appear in an area in waves. There were a few cases in the health department's coverage area (Baraga, Gogebic, Houghton, Keweenaw and Ontonagon counties) last spring.

"It never went totally away, but subsided over the summer," she said. "Flu is unpredictable."

Throughout the country, many people are having "flu parties" with the intent of exposing themselves and their children to the illness, mistakenly thinking exposure will make them immune. However, Frankovich said although someone who gets ill this year won't get it again, they will still be vulnerable if it returns next year. Many people can become dangerously ill and even die from the illness.

"There's no way to know who's going to get seriously ill," she said.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta have named five priority groups for receiving the currently limited amounts of vaccine. They are: pregnant women; household contacts and child care providers of children under 6 months of age; children to young adults, aged 6 months to 24 years; adults 25 to 64 with chronic conditions including asthma, heart and lung disease, compromised immunity, diabetes and other illnesses; health care workers and emergency response personnel.

From 1 to 4 p.m. Thursday, the health department will conduct a vaccine clinic in the Hancock office for people in those priority groups, Frankovich said.

Michael H. Babcock can be reached at mbabcock@mininggazette.com. Kurt Hauglie can be reached at khauglie@mininggazette.com.