Moms say kids got norovirus at Marysville trampoline park

MARYSVILLE, Wash. – A potential norovirus outbreak over the weekend at a Marysville trampoline park left nearly a dozen kids sick with extreme flu-like symptoms.

The virus is spreading through entire families, according to one mom who alerted Q13 News to the problem.

Christi Young said her 7-year-old son’s class was canceled Monday and will again be cancelled on Tuesday due to several sick children and parents.



“Saturday night, in the middle of the night, he woke up vomiting,” Young said. “He vomited through the night.”

Young’s son was one of nearly a dozen children who presented norovirus-like symptoms after attending a birthday party at Altitude Trampoline Park on Friday.

“I am looking at my other two girls like a ticking time-bomb,” Young said.

Officials at the health department said they were notified of the potential outbreak over the weekend and alerted the business. The health department does not keep track of suspected norovirus outbreaks and does not test businesses for the virus.

Young said she’s heard of at least 10 cases from the birthday party, and believes there are more.

“I started texting the other parents I knew from the party, and just person after person was saying ‘yes, we have it too,'" she said.

Altitude did not have any signs about the possible outbreak at its business onMonday. A company representative said they were not notifying parents verbally.

“I would not have dropped my daughter off had I known that,” said Heidi Kelso.

Kelso said she already has a sick husband at home, and can’t afford the possibility of him getting worse.

She said she was frustrated that management was mum, and believes it’s important for local businesses to look out for their communities.

“Just the right thing to do, to say that there might have been a case here, just something on the wall to say something happened,” she said.

Young said she called Altitude three times over the weekend to notify management of the potential outbreak.

“I notified them as soon as I had that suspicion just for that reason, because I would think that they would want to protect the community that they serve by closing and sanitizing,” Young said.

Altitude owner, David Jones, said the company took steps as soon as there was news of a potential outbreak.

“They do a thorough cleaning every night, but they actually went through after hearing about the reports of people getting sick, they went through and did another thorough cleaning,” Jones said.

That cleaning happened on Sunday, using bleach-based products, a known killer of the norovirus.

Jones said he understands the mothers’ concerns, but without the health district saying the company is the culprit, he questioned if it’s Altitude's responsibility to tell parents about an unconfirmed outbreak.

“We don’t know if one of the kids was sick when he walked through the door and got all his buddies sick,” Jones said. “I want to do the right thing.”

The health district won’t do inspections to see if Altitude complied with cleaning protocol or test the property for the virus. It’s just one more reason, Young said it’s better to be safe and alert parents, than sick and sorry.

“I don’t think that’s a bad idea ever to notify people," she said.