PORT ST. LUCIE — A man who fell about 12 feet at a worksite in the 200 block of Port St. Lucie Boulevard about 4 p.m. Tuesday was flown by helicopter to St. Mary’s Medical Center in West Palm Beach.

Catherine Chaney, spokeswoman for the St. Lucie County Fire District, said the man, said to be in his 50s, sustained “serious but not life-threatening injuries.”

The helicopter apparently picked up the man at a ball field near Bayshore Elementary School, where the chopper and several fire district vehicles were seen.

Wendy Portillo

Portillo got the suspension after a lengthy St. Lucie County Schools investigation into the incident. Alex was 5 years old last May when he was voted out by classmates. He was in the process of being diagnosed with a type of autism. (more…)

Tristan Allegra

PORT ST. LUCIE — Students and staff at Mariposa Elementary School remember Tristan Allegra, 8, “very kind and helpful, cool and funny,” according to a counselor who helped them cope with the third-grader’s Christmas Day death.

“Tristan was a popular kid, very well-liked,” said Robert O’Neill, a St. Lucie County School District psychologist, one of three counselors who went to the school Monday and Tuesday as classes resumed after the holiday break.

Sign Tristan’s guest book.

According to a Port St. Lucie Police Department arrest affidavit, Tristan died after his mother, Eryn Allegra, of the 2200 block of Southeast Bowie Street, smothered him in his sleep early Christmas morning in a hotel room. She is held without bond on a charge of first-degree murder.

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Samples taken from ill Martin County students have revealed that it was the norovirus that caused nausea and vomiting in at least 100 students recently.

Last week, dozens of Hobe Sound Elementary School students didn’t report to class, prompting the school to scrub desks and buses.

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Today 121 students were absent from Hobe Sound Elementary School, officials said, two days after the absence of dozens of students prompted health officials to investigate if children got sick at the school.

School district officials don’t know whether the students who missed school today were absent due to illness or were left at home by parents who didn’t want them attending the school after it reported Wednesday’s unusually high number of absences.

On Thursday, 124 of the school’s 715 students were absent, Martin school district spokeswoman Cathy Brennan said. (more…)

Martin County school district and health officials are working to determine what caused more than 100 students, some of them ill, to stay home from Hobe Sound Elementary School on Wednesday and Thursday.

On Thursday, 124 of the school’s 715 students were absent, Martin school district spokeswoman Cathy Brennan said.

The day before, 118 were absent, while another 24 children went home early, complaining of nausea and vomiting, Brennan said.

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