Sick Kids in School

[Veronica]

Drives me crazy when parents send their kids who are coughing or sneezing constantly (not from allergies) to school.

Let's just spread all those germs around to everyone else.

Veronica

[ny biker]

I feel your pain. Drives me crazy when sick co-workers cough their germs all over. Sometimes I just want to spray Lysol over everyone.

[limewave]

My boss keeps boxes of lysol and clorox wipes in her office. And she DOES follow people around spraying lysol. It's pretty funny.

[OakLeaf]

It's got to be tough with middle school kids.

<tremorous old lady voice>In myyyyyy day, once I turned ten, if I was sick I stayed home. </voice> Nowadays CSB gets called when a ten-year-old or even a 13-year-old is home alone (seen it happen more than once, and they DO follow through with neglect charges). Most parents don't have paid FMLA leave, and paid or not, they need a doctor's slip. Who's going to pay for an office visit when it's obvious the kid just has a cold? Cheaper to be docked a day's pay, except that of course it makes it that much likelier they'll get fired for excessive absence.

I feel your pain V. At least every sneeze can be a teachable moment. Do you at least have a handwashing sink in your classroom?

[Veronica]

I feel your pain V. At least every sneeze can be a teachable moment. Do you at least have a handwashing sink in your classroom?

We do have a sink. But imagine 32 kids trying to use it. Seriously, I have 6 in my room today who should be washing their hands every 3 minutes.

Veronica

[MommyBird]

Everywhere I go I see those free standing hand sanitizer dispensers.
After greeting time in church the whole sanctuary smell like the stuff.

Yesterday my husband drove to Columbia, SC to meet with an engineering firm about a project. The first guy sneezed into his hand as he was standing up and still held out his hand! Hubby chose not to be rude and shook it, but with mental reservations. Business opportunities are slim these days, you don't want to appear disrespectful to a potential client! To add insult to injury, the next guy refused to shake Dave's hand. I personally do not blame him after witnessing the sneeze.

[Veronica]

Everywhere I go I see those free standing hand sanitizer dispensers.

Yeah, but they are not free. California schools are in a world of hurt right now financially. I'm not even making extra copies of things for my kids who lose stuff anymore. "Sorry dude, you lost it, no extra copes, you're getting a zero."

Sounds harsh, but again I have 5 - 10 kids who lose something every week. Copy costs add up.

Veronica

[ACG]

Raised two kids, now adults, sort of, in college. Now on my third, she's 7. She has allergies. We keep her home if she has a fever. She uses the hand sanitzer so much her skin is raw, now I make her use lotion after the sanitzer.

I donate to the teacher and the daycare the hand sanitizer, tissues, paper and anything else I can think of. Always have. In the beginning of the year I ask them for a wish list, then ask again mid year. They appreciate it.

I sympathize with people who work and maybe they feel like if the kid is that sick the school will call them? Which is a total waste of everyone's time and energy I know.

Do you know how hard it is to find babysitters, people are still being picky and I'm paying them!!!! grrrr. okay, enough said.

Sorry you've got a bunch of sickies. And bravo, if they loose it too bad, this is life, they have to keep on top of thier stuff themselves.

[MommyBird]

Schools are not a place I frequent.
We home school.

Try to look on the bright side, your financially forced responsibility lesson could benefit a student or two.

[sfa]

How sick is sick, though? The problem with most viruses - the "common cold" that runs rampant in schools and offices this time of year - is that you're contagious from a day before you have any symptoms until all of your symptoms are gone. Since most of these viruses last about a week or ten days, you're talking about kids missing a week or more of school and adults missing work for that long when a) they already transmitted it to everyone before they knew they were sick and b) except for being stuffy and coughing and sneezing, they feel fine. Perfectly capable of doing their work and paying attention. School aged kids get, on average, between seven and 12 colds a year. Do you really want them missing that much school?

So where do you draw the line? The rule in our schools is that you have to stay home for 24 hours after you've had a fever or have thrown up. If I had to keep my son out of school every time he had a cold, he'd be out of school a lot more than he's in (he has a primary immune deficiency disorder, so he gets colds and they last a month or more, until they finally turn into a secondary infection and we can treat with antibiotics. Until that point, though, it's just a cold and nothing can be done about it). I checked with the school system about getting him "home and hospital" services for when he was sick so that he COULD stay home and not infect other people, but they didn't go for it. So I follow the fever/vomiting rule and only keep him out with a cold if I think that he's too sick to learn--if he hasn't been sleeping because of a cough, or is just so physically miserable that he needs rest and no stimulation, or if he's not eating well because of his cold.

Sarah

[Veronica]

I wouldn't send a kid to school who was coughing or sneezing every few minutes. You're not here to hear my one kid who sounds like he's hacking up a lung and has his head down because it hurts.

And as the teacher, I'd like those kids to be home, since I don't want to be out sick. No matter how good the sub, they don't do as good a job teaching as I do.

Veronica

[sfa]

Yeah, a kid who hurts so much that he can't keep his head up should be at home. Can't you call the school nurse and have her call one of the parents?

Sarah

[Veronica]

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

Veronica

[Tri Girl]

I feel your pain. This year I became a librarian, and I now have not only the regular 26 kids in my room that I used to have, but the WHOLE school rotates through my library twice a week. That's 800 germy little ones in my classroom weekly. EEK! I'm not a germaphobe, but I do wipe down with clorox wipes or spray with clorox spray at LEAST once a week. Ick!

What especially grosses me out is the little ones who touch all the books with the hands you JUST saw them pick their nose with. ewww

I feel bad for the ones who are clearly sick, but are at school. You know they're miserable and would rather be in bed. Poor little ones (but I understand sometimes parents can't miss work to keep them home). So hard.

[Crankin]

Well, I have to say I have been much healthier since I quit teaching. But even I made mistakes in when to keep my kids home or send to school. One day, Scott, age 8, told me his "bones hurt." DH was out of town and I was stressed. I said, "Get dressed, you're going. I can't stay home another day" (the other one had just been home 2 days). Two hours later I got a call from the nurse, saying he had a fever and was really sick. I worked really, really far from where I lived and their school was another 10 miles from my house. By the time I got him, went to the doctor and was waiting for the prescription at the pharmacy, he was lying on the floor in the store, moaning his head off, with a 104 degree fever and bronchitis. So I listened after that!
I *did* let them stay home alone with a mild cold after age 10. Well, I let the older one stay home at age 10, and I just checked on him every hour by phone. Scott was maybe 12 when I let him do that. He once called me when he was a freshman in HS and had stayed home, saying he "couldn't breathe." I ran out of my classroom so fast, the kids wondered where I went; I got an assistant from the special ed room to teach my class and told my boss I was leaving. I didn't give her time to even question me... he ended up having pneumonia (from riding when he was just a little sick, which turned into big sick).