Sick Kids in School

[malkin]

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]

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]

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]

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

[Running Mommy]

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]

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]

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.