New Rochelle students return home after nearly 2 dozen students sickened on Washington D.C. field trip

NEW ROCHELLE, New York (WABC) -- It was intended to be a trip for middle school students in New Rochelle to always remember - although now, they would probably like to forge.

A motor coach returned about 70 eighth graders to Isaac E. Young Middle School, after their annual school trip to the Nation's Capitol took a detour from the national monuments and museums to the inside of a hospital. 22 of those students were hospitalized with a nasty stomach bug called 'norovirus', a highly contagious illness that causes gastrointestinal turmoil so bad that 10 of those kids needed IV fluids.

Parents lined up outside the school, and were relieved their children were finally coming home.

"Just horrible. Throwing up - they were in the hospital since last night. It's just a disaster, I guess," said one parent.

School Principal Anthony Bongo said the problem seemed to snowball from between 9 p.m. and 4 a.m. Thursday into Friday.

"There's speculation, and that's all we have is speculation, that they were all at a common restaurant earlier, they went on a common scenic boat ride afterwards, and shortly thereafter, the first student came up with the symptoms," said Bongo.

It is not clear exactly where the students contracted the virus, or how much time elapsed before they experienced the symptoms.

While the students were tired and not feeling well at all on Friday night, they are certainly happy to be home, and should be better in a couple of days.