Classes at the Middleton High School are shrinking, that's because students are getting sick and its spreading fast.

School officials say students are getting sick earlier this year and the H1N1 virus has hit hard in their district.

"We have a steady stream of kids coming in with a fever, muscle aches, some of them with cough and some of them with nausea and vomiting," said the District Nurse Merrilyn Jefferies.

The high school alone has 18% of their students out sick, that's about 142 kids and in the Middle school 112 students have become ill.

Nurses said students are coming to school already sick and infecting others because they don't want to miss class.

"The other thing they say I had a test or I had Driver's Ed or I can't miss football practice, that's our problem we have kids coming to school that are ill," said Jefferies.

That's why the school has prepared itself as they send sick kids home and placing plenty of sanitizer bottles in every classroom.

"You follow the same procedures, whenever fall comes. You just be careful, just wash your hands, it's not like it's a new rule," said a Middleton High School teacher Kathleen Harris.

The best advice nurses say to parents, if you're child is sick keep them home.

"Until parents make their kids stay at home and until the kids take the responsibility themselves when they're sick, we're never going to get rid of it," said Jefferies.

The District nurse says there's a combination of the flu and a stomach virus going around and getting students sick. But from all their cases they have confirmed 12 students with the H1N1 virus, also known as the swine flu.