| Absence rates soared yesterday in Cabell County following the swine flu death of a 14-year-old Cabell Midland student.
Freshman Patrick Wheeler died Saturday.
Jedd Flowers, a spokesman for Cabell County Schools, said 494 of Cabell-Midland's student population of 1,800 didn't show up for school Monday morning.
At Barboursville Middle, which Wheeler attended last year, about 30 percent of students were absent. Attendance is down at other schools.
The fatality is even having an effect on the county's elementary schools. "This death has kind of caused a panic all over the county," Flowers said.
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