WEATHERFORD, Texas (KTVT) – A Texas teacher died from what is believed to be complications from the flu, an official with the Weatherford Independent School District confirmed to KTVT on Monday.
Heather Holland, a second-grade teacher at Ikard Elementary, died over the weekend. School officials notified parents of the 38-year-old teacher's students through a phone call.
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"She was a very, very kind lady, very good teacher, everybody thought very highly of her, so it's really tough," Lindsay Larossa, a parent, said.
Larossa told KTVT she had just seen Holland days ago and that their kids played together. District officials told the Dallas TV station that their school was one of many schools on a rotating deep-clean schedule and that it had just been cleaned Friday.
Officials also said the school hadn't seen flu activity that was out of the norm. Still, Holland's death has parents on alert.
"You never know, some people younger and older, (the flu) doesn't impact them as hard," Mirella Ramirez, a parent, said. "Then, you hear of somebody young dying, it's just do whatever you can to prevent yourself from getting sick."
More than 2,800 people have suffered flu-related deaths since Oct. 1, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services. Individuals 65 years or older account for 61 percent of flu-related deaths in Texas.