Some Students Detained in Swine Flu Scare Return Home

A dozen Pacific Ridge School teachers and students have returned to San Diego after people they were traveling with tested positive for swine flu during a trip to China.

"I think today is the happiest moment in a difficult week," said Eileen Mullady, Head of School.

The group landed at Los Angeles International Airport Saturday night after being quarantined in China for a week. Another group was expected later Saturday, bringing the total of those who have returned to 29.

The students said they were treated well in China.

"Yeah, really well," said 15 year old John Ballif.  "We were really surprised they brought us computers with web cams and roses and Sprite, KFC, McDonald's. Everything they could, just to make us feel at home."

Ballif's father Mark says he wasn't worried.

"It was an adventure and because we were in close contact with him and because the school administration kept us very carefully informed, we really weren't worried.  We had full confidence in the faculty that was with them."

School spokeswoman Anne Carr says there are still five students in a Chinese hospital awaiting final test results before they can be released. A teacher stayed to supervise them.

On June 2, the group of 35 ninth-graders left for China and visited the Great Wall and other historic sites before a few students began to feel ill.

It's unknown how the illness was contracted.

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