An independent Newberry school is closed today after 13 students and three chaperones returned from a trip to Cancun, Mexico with flu-like symptoms.

A message on the Newberry Academy's Web site (http://www.newberryacademy.com) says an announcement will be made by 3 p.m. on whether school will be closed tomorrow.

All of the students on the April 16-20 trip, plus two others who did not go but have since become ill, were tested yesterday at DHEC for the swine flu, a disease that has killed more than 80 people in Mexico and sickened dozens across the United States.

The students' samples were sent to Atlanta, and school officials hope to hear back today if the illness is the swine flu.

Twelve of the 13 students on the trip have been sick to some degree, said Robert Dawkins, the school's headmaster. Two went to the hospital, but were not admitted. One of the chaperones has had some flu-like symptoms, as have two other students who were not on the trip – a junior and a senior.

Adam Roberts, an 18-year-old senior who plans to attend USC in the fall, was on the trip. He started feeling ill in the airport on the way back. At school the next day, he said, he felt terrible and slept through all of his classes.

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