UPDATE: Some Hadley Parents Keeping Children Home After 'Light Bed Bug' Infestation

UPDATE Nov. 5, 4:30 p.m.:

ABC7 News reported Tuesday that of the nearly 1,200 students at the school, about 230 were kept home by their parents on Monday and Tuesday due to the infestation.

"It's even harder to get bed bugs out of a house than out of a school I imagine so I kept him out," Lisa Demos told the station.

The cleaning continued with students and staff de-cluttering the school, and that process should be complete by Wednesday, administrators say.

---------------------------------

ORIGINAL STORY:

Parents of Hadley Middle School students were notified Friday that a bed bug had found its way into the school. Staff brought in a "bed bug expert" to assess the situation, and a pest control company came in over the weekend and treated what it identified as a "light case of bed bugs," according to an announcement from Superintendent Paul Gordon.

Gordon said students and staff this week are being asked to get rid of non-essential things in the school, such as pillows, rugs and blankets. While many areas of the school have been treated, he urged families to discard their items just to be on the safe side. Gym uniforms were treated as part of the locker room treatment and are safe to wear, but needed to be washed this week. 

He noted that the days-long process of identifying the bugs, de-cluttering and treating the school, and clean-up has inconvenienced "almost everyone," and he thanked families for their patience in ridding the school of the pests.

While some people are highly sensitive to bites, bed bugs do not transmit disease, and they are not a sign of lack of hygiene or sanitation problems, he said, adding there is no way of knowing how the bugs got into the school. 

Early this year, Chicago earned the unsettling distinction of bed bug capital of the U.S., according to the Huffington Post.

"This is a learning process for all of us," Gordon said.