Ever wonder why your classmate comes to school with a scratchy voice, constant sniffle, or cough, because I did too. Students feel the need to come into school only because they don’t want to fall behind in class work. Students feel the need to come to school when sick because they don’t want to lose their incentives.
Students should feel able to miss one day of school because they are sick. Teachers should understand these things happen and should give students an extra day to catch up on work so they can feel caught up and on par with their peers. I understand that sick students get one extra block day but sometimes one extra block day doesn’t make a difference. Students also feel unable to miss days of school so they can keep their incentives.
According to the Children’s Hospital Of Philadelphia, parents should encourage their students to stay home when they have symptoms of fever, nausea, diarrhea, or vomiting. Having these symptoms can cause a risk of outbreak within the classroom and interactions with their fellow peers. Sending these infected students can cause a schoolwide infection. There only has to be one person to cause an outbreak.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, diseases can spread through various ways. If someone who is infected with any sort of sickness makes contact with a healthy person that person is now infected, germs can spread through a few ways such as, physical contact, sprays and splashes such as coughing and sneezing, and breathing in germs that are in the air.
After I asked 50 high school students the same question of “if they were comfortable being in the same class as someone who was infected with a sickness,” 48 of them said they wouldn’t and the other two said they wouldn’t mind. Sending someone to school who isn’t well can distract their peers from their work.
Students could email their teachers with a list of symptoms they feel the day they miss school, teachers would have to trust their students’ word and give them two to three extra block days to learn or work on what they missed the day or days they were sick. Teachers could give 5-10 passes per year or semester depending on the teacher and what course they teach, these absences wouldn’t count against incentives. But, after the student has used all of their passes then they would.
Make sure to communicate with your teachers when falling behind on work. Also be sure to be considerate of your peers around you if you are not feeling the best.
