Parents- PLEASE keep your sick child at home

[Anonymous]

I teach at the elementary level. Yesterday afternoon, I had a student repeatedly vomit in the classroom. I escorted the child to the health room and mom came to pick up the child from school. Well, the child was back in school today. The health tech called the parent who said the child felt better and “insisted” on coming to school today. Since the child didn’t have a fever, child was allowed to stay in school. There is a stomach virus going around the building. This wasn’t a case of the child ate something for lunch and it disagreed with them. This kid was vomiting large amounts over and over again. The child looked sick and miserable all day long. However, since child’s temperature was normal, there wasn’t a thing that could be done.

Parent won’t respond to phone calls, so I’m out of luck there.

Please keep your sick kids at home. Please.

[Anonymous]

Seriously? I thought there was a 24 hour no vomit rule in addition to no fever rule.

I'm sorry OP. That really sucks.

[Anonymous]

Yup. Not cool. Poor kid.

[Anonymous]

Ugh. Poor kid. We just had a stomach virus go through our house and I cannot imagine sitting in school with how crappy we all felt. And we stayed home, OP!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Seriously? I thought there was a 24 hour no vomit rule in addition to no fever rule.

I'm sorry OP. That really sucks.

NP. People don't follow the rules. They suck. Not only because their kid is miserable at school and infecting other kids, but also because teachers and staff have to deal with it and become exposed. Teachers have limited sick leave, and we are no longer allowed to take leave without pay. Any sick leave taken past your available amount now has to be pre approved by admin and HR ahead of the leave being taken. My 5 year old had surgery last year and I used up all of my saved up leave to help him recover. Now I have very little sick leave, and will likely have to go into work sick myself once I'm out of sick leave because waking up sick can't be approved in advance. There are multiple illnesses going around the building at any given time due to parents sending their kids into school sick, whether it's the "he just threw up once" variety or the "load her up with Motrin so I can get in a half day of work because I don't want to burn PTO--whoops, it's actually the flu " variety.

And, yes, I'm aware that people need to work to pay their bills. I worked for years at a school with a very high FARMS population, and the parents were pretty much always able to find extended family or someone in the neighborhood to help out, so it can be done. For some reason it's the low FARMS population who tend to send their kids in sick more often and consider it to be someone else's problem.

[Anonymous]

Shitty parents. I feel sorry for the sick child.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I teach at the elementary level. Yesterday afternoon, I had a student repeatedly vomit in the classroom. I escorted the child to the health room and mom came to pick up the child from school. Well, the child was back in school today. The health tech called the parent who said the child felt better and “insisted” on coming to school today. Since the child didn’t have a fever, child was allowed to stay in school. There is a stomach virus going around the building. This wasn’t a case of the child ate something for lunch and it disagreed with them. This kid was vomiting large amounts over and over again. The child looked sick and miserable all day long. However, since child’s temperature was normal, there wasn’t a thing that could be done.

Parent won’t respond to phone calls, so I’m out of luck there.

Please keep your sick kids at home. Please.

I'm surprised. At our school, the child would be sent to the nurse's office to wait for pickup and they would keep calling the parent. And the child would be marked as out sick.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I teach at the elementary level. Yesterday afternoon, I had a student repeatedly vomit in the classroom. I escorted the child to the health room and mom came to pick up the child from school. Well, the child was back in school today. The health tech called the parent who said the child felt better and “insisted” on coming to school today. Since the child didn’t have a fever, child was allowed to stay in school. There is a stomach virus going around the building. This wasn’t a case of the child ate something for lunch and it disagreed with them. This kid was vomiting large amounts over and over again. The child looked sick and miserable all day long. However, since child’s temperature was normal, there wasn’t a thing that could be done.

Parent won’t respond to phone calls, so I’m out of luck there.

Please keep your sick kids at home. Please.

I'm surprised. At our school, the child would be sent to the nurse's office to wait for pickup and they would keep calling the parent. And the child would be marked as out sick.

I also teach ES—my reaction to this chain of events would be to assume there’s a work-specific reason the parent can’t keep the child home. Two days left, OP. Two days.

[Anonymous]

My three young kids have been alternating a virus for the last two weeks (!) and I am working nights trying to catch up on all my missed work. I can only imagine how difficult it would be if I didn’t have the flexibility to do that. I do keep my sick kids home and wish that others would, too, so that kids can heal and so that we don’t all have to deal with every school virus, but I do recognize that it can be a real challenge.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I teach at the elementary level. Yesterday afternoon, I had a student repeatedly vomit in the classroom. I escorted the child to the health room and mom came to pick up the child from school. Well, the child was back in school today. The health tech called the parent who said the child felt better and “insisted” on coming to school today. Since the child didn’t have a fever, child was allowed to stay in school. There is a stomach virus going around the building. This wasn’t a case of the child ate something for lunch and it disagreed with them. This kid was vomiting large amounts over and over again. The child looked sick and miserable all day long. However, since child’s temperature was normal, there wasn’t a thing that could be done.

Parent won’t respond to phone calls, so I’m out of luck there.

Please keep your sick kids at home. Please.

At least you know this kid wasn’t contagious.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I teach at the elementary level. Yesterday afternoon, I had a student repeatedly vomit in the classroom. I escorted the child to the health room and mom came to pick up the child from school. Well, the child was back in school today. The health tech called the parent who said the child felt better and “insisted” on coming to school today. Since the child didn’t have a fever, child was allowed to stay in school. There is a stomach virus going around the building. This wasn’t a case of the child ate something for lunch and it disagreed with them. This kid was vomiting large amounts over and over again. The child looked sick and miserable all day long. However, since child’s temperature was normal, there wasn’t a thing that could be done.

Parent won’t respond to phone calls, so I’m out of luck there.

Please keep your sick kids at home. Please.

At least you know this kid wasn’t contagious.

Stomach viruses aren’t contagious? What planet are you living on?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I teach at the elementary level. Yesterday afternoon, I had a student repeatedly vomit in the classroom. I escorted the child to the health room and mom came to pick up the child from school. Well, the child was back in school today. The health tech called the parent who said the child felt better and “insisted” on coming to school today. Since the child didn’t have a fever, child was allowed to stay in school. There is a stomach virus going around the building. This wasn’t a case of the child ate something for lunch and it disagreed with them. This kid was vomiting large amounts over and over again. The child looked sick and miserable all day long. However, since child’s temperature was normal, there wasn’t a thing that could be done.

Parent won’t respond to phone calls, so I’m out of luck there.

Please keep your sick kids at home. Please.

I'm surprised. At our school, the child would be sent to the nurse's office to wait for pickup and they would keep calling the parent. And the child would be marked as out sick.

Yeah, our school would "quarantine" the kid in the nurse's office until parents came.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I teach at the elementary level. Yesterday afternoon, I had a student repeatedly vomit in the classroom. I escorted the child to the health room and mom came to pick up the child from school. Well, the child was back in school today. The health tech called the parent who said the child felt better and “insisted” on coming to school today. Since the child didn’t have a fever, child was allowed to stay in school. There is a stomach virus going around the building. This wasn’t a case of the child ate something for lunch and it disagreed with them. This kid was vomiting large amounts over and over again. The child looked sick and miserable all day long. However, since child’s temperature was normal, there wasn’t a thing that could be done.

Parent won’t respond to phone calls, so I’m out of luck there.

Please keep your sick kids at home. Please.

This wasn’t a case of the child ate something for lunch and it disagreed with them. This kid was vomiting large amounts over and over again.

Not defending the parents..but food poisoning does this too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Seriously? I thought there was a 24 hour no vomit rule in addition to no fever rule.

I'm sorry OP. That really sucks.

NP. People don't follow the rules. They suck. Not only because their kid is miserable at school and infecting other kids, but also because teachers and staff have to deal with it and become exposed. Teachers have limited sick leave, and we are no longer allowed to take leave without pay. Any sick leave taken past your available amount now has to be pre approved by admin and HR ahead of the leave being taken. My 5 year old had surgery last year and I used up all of my saved up leave to help him recover. Now I have very little sick leave, and will likely have to go into work sick myself once I'm out of sick leave because waking up sick can't be approved in advance. There are multiple illnesses going around the building at any given time due to parents sending their kids into school sick, whether it's the "he just threw up once" variety or the "load her up with Motrin so I can get in a half day of work because I don't want to burn PTO--whoops, it's actually the flu " variety.

And, yes, I'm aware that people need to work to pay their bills. I worked for years at a school with a very high FARMS population, and the parents were pretty much always able to find extended family or someone in the neighborhood to help out, so it can be done. For some reason it's the low FARMS population who tend to send their kids in sick more often and consider it to be someone else's problem.

It's the professional parents with management level (when it becomes harder to leave because of meetings and travel) 9 to 5s and no grandparents nearby (or older/deceased grandparents) that often have the most problems. For what its worth, the lower-income people tended to be able to find someone to cover their shift and switch to a night shift or had larger extended family nearby and younger grandparents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Seriously? I thought there was a 24 hour no vomit rule in addition to no fever rule.

I'm sorry OP. That really sucks.

NP. People don't follow the rules. They suck. Not only because their kid is miserable at school and infecting other kids, but also because teachers and staff have to deal with it and become exposed. Teachers have limited sick leave, and we are no longer allowed to take leave without pay. Any sick leave taken past your available amount now has to be pre approved by admin and HR ahead of the leave being taken. My 5 year old had surgery last year and I used up all of my saved up leave to help him recover. Now I have very little sick leave, and will likely have to go into work sick myself once I'm out of sick leave because waking up sick can't be approved in advance. There are multiple illnesses going around the building at any given time due to parents sending their kids into school sick, whether it's the "he just threw up once" variety or the "load her up with Motrin so I can get in a half day of work because I don't want to burn PTO--whoops, it's actually the flu " variety.

And, yes, I'm aware that people need to work to pay their bills. I worked for years at a school with a very high FARMS population, and the parents were pretty much always able to find extended family or someone in the neighborhood to help out, so it can be done. For some reason it's the low FARMS population who tend to send their kids in sick more often and consider it to be someone else's problem.

It's the professional parents with management level (when it becomes harder to leave because of meetings and travel) 9 to 5s and no grandparents nearby (or older/deceased grandparents) that often have the most problems. For what its worth, the lower-income people tended to be able to find someone to cover their shift and switch to a night shift or had larger extended family nearby and younger grandparents.

I am a single parent with no family nearby and I would not send my kid to school sick mainly because I care about my kid. If my job can't handle that - time for a different job.