KANSAS CITY — A senior trip for 42 high school students to a Mexican resort ended tragically when one of the parents died Monday of bacterial meningitis.
Mary Jo Allen, 58, a home builder, Realtor and developer in suburban Lenexa, Kan., left for the Riu Playacar resort on the Yucatan peninsula on March 16. Also on the trip were her daughter, Emily Hoops, 20, and son, David Hoops, 18, a senior at Shawnee Mission West High School and a member of the school’s baseball team.
Allen, known to everyone as MJ, flew back to Kansas City on Sunday afternoon and became ill late that day. She was pronounced dead at Shawnee Mission Medical Center the next day.
Teri Scott, a nurse who was with Allen during the trip, said she appeared tired on the last day of the weeklong vacation but didn’t appear ill. She complained of a sore throat.
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