MOUNT VERNON — Matt Cox, Mount Vernon Middle School assistant principal, was unable to confirm a story that a MVMS student with a high fever was allowed to return to class because the student’s parents could not pick him up.

“At this point, when we have a kid with a temperature — and I can’t speak specifically to him — but when we have a student with a temperature, we’ve always preached for the student to tough it out and stay in school,” Cox said. “But at this point, with this H1N1, I’ll be real honest with you, we’ve kind of changed our take this year. If they have a temperature, we’re trying to get them home as soon as we can. Sometimes that’s not possible, and I don’t know what happened in his case.

“I have been here all day but I didn’t see him come across. Sometimes we can’t get ahold of a parent right away, so what we do is, we have a clinic down here and we keep them down here.”

The student was reported to have had a fever of 101 degrees and that, because his parents could not pick him up, he was sent back to class.