Sick Kids in School

**MommyBird** · 03-09-2010, 02:19 PM

I have been so blessed to be able to stay home with my boys.
One advantage to home schooling is that your child does not need to lose an entire day of learning every time they are not well. Sick enough to stay home and not expose others is not always too sick to learn.
Plus, you can easily salvage those days when they are ill in the morning but perk up in the afternoon.
We only have one more year of schooling. It has been an exciting ride.

**michelem** · 03-09-2010, 03:16 PM

I so hear you! My DH works with middle schoolers (60+ per day). Due to the CA financial crisis, a whole program above his is being cut and those people are getting the option of taking the layoff or bumping those immediately below (which, would include my DH).

This past week he came home with a sinus/chest cold as well as pink eye. Unfortunately, due to the fact that he is in a low-income, "at risk" school/area these parents (caregivers, really -- it's rare to find kids in that school with two parents, and even one is stretching it) don't really have any other options for their kids besides sending them to school/after-school program even when they are sick.

For all the problems though, he loves getting to make a difference in these rugrats' lives each day.

**michelem** · 03-09-2010, 03:17 PM

Originally Posted by Veronica

School nurse??????? That would be me or our beleagured office workers.

Veronica

Hah hah! That is what my DH says, "I AM the school nurse, and the custodian, and the principal . . . ."

**Selkie** · 03-10-2010, 12:26 AM

V and other teachers --- I don't know how you do it. Can you have the kids sent home or is there a designated "sick room" at school where they can be "stored" until dismissal time? ;-)

Sickies coming into work (school) and sharing their bugs ticks me off to no end. The office in which I office is filled with people who don't believe in using their sick leave (trust me, we get plenty of sick leave and can actually "borrow" against our yearly allotment, if necessary). I'm not ashamed to admit that I spray Lysol---the doofus who sits closest to me seems to get a bad cold at least once a month. Keeping my immune system strong (drink Kefir every day, take extra C and some L-Lysine) and remembering NOT to touch my mouth, nose and eyes seems to help. I also have a bottle of hand sanitizer and a tub of Clorox wipes at my desk.

**malkin** · 03-12-2010, 01:26 PM

As some of you know I work at a school for kids with autism...we are constantly trying to teach kids to cover coughs and sneezes, with limited success as you may well imagine.

Yesterday one kid took a big pre-sneeze breath...AH AH... and then grabbed a teacher by the wrist and...CHOO...sneezed right into her hand.

Classic!

**OakLeaf** · 03-12-2010, 02:39 PM

Malkin, yuck!

Then there are always these (it's a rhinovirus):

Funny, instructive and a great reminder to wash your hands. DH got a round of them for everyone we know as stocking stuffers this holiday season.

**solobiker** · 03-12-2010, 02:55 PM

I don't work in a school but several of the people I share an office with come in with colds or other issues. Drives me crazy. Our office is small and we have to share desk space and chairs when we have to do paperwork. People think I am funny because for lunch I only bring foods that I can eat with utensils so that avoids my hands touching what I am going to eat (even though I was my hands too many times to count). I don't want to risk getting their germs.

I work in healthcare so it is frustrating for me to see staff members come in when they are sick. The patients are already sick and having to deal with other issues without having to deal with catching someone else's cold or flu.

**malkin** · 03-14-2010, 01:32 PM

Giant Microbes is now on my list of places to shop!

**Running Mommy** · 03-23-2010, 10:12 PM

We had H1N1 run rampant through our school this year. Most kids were out at a week minimum, and many kids are on their second or third bout of the flu.
Running son had it and was out a solid week.
I - along with all the other parents- got a nasty gram in the mail threatening us because our kids have missed too much school this year?!
It was a warning that we would be fined or worse- have charges filed against us??!!!
So I marched into the office with the letter that I still had lying around from earlier in the year imploring parents to keep sick kids home, and the threat letter. I probably could have handled it better, but I let the principal have it. I then proceeded to email the district and state supe's. Come to find out- it's a freaking AZ LAW!!!! If the kid has xx amount of missed days, for any reason- the letter goes out.
Sometimes I hate this freaking state! And to think I left California for something "better"... sigh...

**moonfroggy** · 03-23-2010, 10:23 PM

California has similar laws about how many days kids can miss. or it did when i was in school that was a while ago though.

**kenyonchris** · 03-25-2010, 07:10 AM

As a cop, I became a total germaphobe a la Monk. People would hand me their driver's license and I would think...gross. But here is the cake....

I was driving northbound on patrol, saw a truck heading southbound...three shoes came flying out of the truck (yes, three, I found the fourth in the truck later). I turned around on the truck and finally got it pulled over in the parking lot of the high school...it was lunchtime and the kid was going back. We went through the rigamarole as to why he was throwing his shoes out the window (never really found out)...in the end, the kid was 18 and had a warrant out for burglary of a hab. So I hooked him up, searched him (went through his pockets and exterior garments, removed the items from his jacket, etc.) and stuck him in my car. I searched the vehicle incident to arrest and went through his personal effects as he told me he had a pipe in there. Found the pipe, touched the pipe. Finally transported the kid to the jail, helped him out of the car (touching his arm), searched him again in the jail, unhandcuffed him, put my cuffs back in my cuff case (I always wipe them off), and released him to the jailer. He sat down on the bench and started to answer the jailers routine book in questions while I sat down to type out my paperwork...I was listening only out of one ear. When the jailer asked if he had any communicable diseases, he stated he had, "full body herpes." I about left my seat. I don't even know what "full body herpes" is, but it didn't sound good. "Dude, whatever," I said, "you think you might have told me that when I was searching you?" He says, "well, you didn't ask" (I have to remind myself that a) he was throwing shoes out of his vehicle in the first place, b) he is 18, and c) a criminal. I had to go take a Karen Silkwood shower.....I found out later that he meant "shingles." Gross anyway. I got the lecture about wearing gloves when searching someone. Blech.

**shootingstar** · 03-25-2010, 07:33 AM

So kenyon, that maybe why some of us see shoe here and there on the road while we're cycling... runaway robbers, criminals. And it's not baby shoes where child loses it by accident.

Who knew. Things that one learns on TE forums.

I've always wondered why would there be shoes along a road.

**kenyonchris** · 03-25-2010, 01:37 PM

Originally Posted by shootingstar

So kenyon, that maybe why some of us see shoe here and there on the road while we're cycling... runaway robbers, criminals. And it's not baby shoes where child loses it by accident.

Who knew. Things that one learns on TE forums.

I've always wondered why would there be shoes along a road.

I was so miffed at the full body herpes thing that in addition to arresting him on the warrant, I also charged him with illegal dumping...which is the HSC offense, as opposed to the city ordinance violation...for tossing the shoes out.

**OakLeaf** · 03-25-2010, 02:15 PM

Yikes.

Still (apart from the "full body herpes") it's a relatively benign way for shoes to get on the road. I've read many times that most shoes on the road are the result of accidents - they tend to come off people's feet and get left behind when the EMTs cart them away.

I wonder if that's really true.

**sfa** · 03-28-2010, 05:32 AM

How about sick kids on bus trips?

DD woke up with a headache yesterday morning. We were scheduled to go with a group to New York for the day. She was in a lot of pain. I gave her Advil, told her that if she was really feeling that bad, maybe we should stay home. She wanted to go--it was just a headache.

Got to the bus, she was feeling lots better. Good decision. Glad we didn't stay home.

Three hours later, about an hour out of NY, she developed a fever. By the time we arrived, she was miserable, aching all over, exhausted, just wanted to go home. She wanted a nice warm bed. Instead we were stuck in the city for the next seven hours and it was chilly and a bit blustery and my guide book didn't have a section on "where to go when your child feels like crap and isn't even interested in the stuffed animals at FAO Schwartz so you know she's REALLY sick."

She did perk up for a little bit in the mid-afternoon, but mostly it was just seven hours of suffering. And I don't feel any better knowing we probably exposed the whole bus to this thing (although she kept entirely to herself, didn't interact with any of the other kids, and stayed seated the whole time, so that minimized exposure).

Sarah

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