WOLCOTT, Conn. -- Wolcott school officials decided to cut a school trip to Washington, D.C., short after several students and a couple of adults reported that they felt ill.

Officials said 205 Tyrell Middle School students went on the annual trip late last week.

Parent Pat Dubois said her 14-year-old daughter was one of the students who went on the trip and reported feeling ill when they got back.

"Saturday she wasn't feeling great, over tired," she said. "By Sunday, she had stomach pain."

Wolcott Superintendent of Schools Dr. Tom Smyth said the four-day trip had to be cut short because so many kids came down with "something."

"Two or three kids, we ended up taking to ER because they were running a high fever," he said.

At first there was concern of an H1N1 outbreak, Smyth said, but none of the roughly 20 people, including two adults, tested positive. However, he said, they did complain of flu-like symptoms. Smyth said school officials believe one of the travelers was sick before the students left.

"We're not identifying who, but there were kids that were hacking the whole trip down, for eight hours in an enclosed bus with 40 kids," Smyth said.

He said the decision to head back early was made in Washington. He said everyone who felt ill was quarantined to one bus.

"We put all the sick kids on the one bus so they would not be contagious with the other students," Smyth said.

But some parents are second-guessing the decision to cut everyone's trip short.

"I think they should refund the parents for the museums and part of trip they did miss," Dubois said.

School officials said 157 students at Tyrell Middle School were absent on Monday. They said not all of them were sick, but that some parents wanted to be safe.

Smyth said he's allowing missed classes to be excused this week as long as parents give their permission.