Each year, students experience a variety of illnesses, whether they be allergies or contagious fevers. To stop the spread of contagious bacterial infections and viruses, it is necessary for sick students to stay home. Someone may wake up with a runny or stuffy nose and blame it on their seasonal allergies; however, they fail to realize that allergy symptoms are extremely similar to those of influenza.
When a student comes to school feeling ill, they likely do not know what sickness they could have. Many students do not want to miss school just because of fatigue or a sore throat, which just happen to be symptoms of COVID-19. It seems like there should be an easy solution to this problem, as there are many at-home tests that can be taken. Both COVID-19 and influenza tests are available at local pharmacies, and one would think that missing a few hours of school is better than getting others sick.
When students come to school knowing that they are ill, they are not only affecting their peers, but their peers’ families as well. For example, a student wakes up with cold symptoms, and decides they do not feel like missing school and making up work. They spend the full day around their peers, not knowing their cold symptoms are Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV), the leading cause of infant hospitalization in the United States. The sick student passes RSV to their friend, who has a newborn brother.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), “RSV does not usually cause severe illness in healthy adults and children. However, some people with RSV infection, especially older adults and infants younger than 6 months of age, can become very sick and may need to be hospitalized.”
While some illnesses may be mild for teenagers, they can be detrimental to infants and elderly people. It is important that those who are feeling sick know the consequences of their actions, which may be fatal to some.
With illnesses such as COVID-19, RSV and influenza being highly contagious, just one student’s sickness can spread to a whole classroom full of unsuspecting kids in a matter of days.
Usually, sick students are supposed to stay home when they have contagious illnesses, but when they do not, they force healthy students to stay home. If a sick student refuses to stay home, students trying to protect themselves from illness will be forced to miss in-person instruction time. Some students are at a higher risk factor for some illnesses, so one sick person coming to school can create a multitude of problems for other students.
Students who knowingly come to school with an illness are most likely unaware of the long term effects of their sickness. It may seem to be a minor problem, but it is not. For example, after someone contracts COVID-19, they have a chance of having those symptoms for many years. This is called “Long Covid” and includes sleep problems, fatigue and coughing, according to the Mayo Clinic.
The selfishness of those who come to school sick goes unmatched. If a student has a contagious virus, they have the chance of disrupting the whole learning environment, as both students and teachers are at risk.
According to Caroline Kee, writer for “Today,” “In Ohio, which is experiencing very high flu activity, multiple schools were forced to close this week [week of Feb. 2] due to a wave of flu.”
After a sick student happily goes to school and spreads the germs they are harboring to half the student body and their teachers, there will be no one to teach the few students who are not sick.
If a student is feeling sick, they should at least have the heart to research their symptoms before endangering other students and staff. If their symptoms are closely related to an infectious disease, they should take a test before chalking it up to “allergies.” After all, washing hands can only do so much.