A plea: please stop sending your sick kids to school

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Look, lady, I sent my kid to school in a mask when she was sick so she wouldn't pass her cold on to other kids. Nobody else did that, so we stopped. We've been sick nonstop since September. It's not going to stop. Feel free to keep your own snowflake home, but nobody else is. Deal.

I hope you like subs.

- A teacher who caught Covid at work a month ago and is taking leave once again for some other virus. (And yes, I caught it at work. I’m always at work. I literally go nowhere else.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, please know that you are a teacher and not a doctor. YOU do not have the power to diagnose children. You also do not have the authority to write the procedures that are in place, set by the school system when it comes to “sick” children. Therefor, I say this nicely, from one teacher to another… stay in your lane or get a new profession.

NP here.

I don’t believe you are a K-12 teacher. We’re so regularly disrespected by others that we tend not to disrespect ourselves. Please “stay in your lane” as a teacher by being instructive and useful. Your post is neither.

Now back on track:

I get that students can’t stay out for long coughs, etc. However, students regularly sit in my class with fevers. I had two feverish students in one of my 10th grade classes recently. Guess how many absences I had the following week? 12. Does it surprise anyone that the symptoms and diagnoses were all the same? It shouldn’t. Your children share more than germs. They share information.

I’d be happy if we could keep the feverish students home. Some parents do, but many do not.

You’re taking the temperature of your tenth graders?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My daughter (9) just tested positive for flu A on Sunday. She is going back to to school tomorrow.
She was 100% fine on Friday. Towards the end of the school day she started coughing hard. Came home at usual time and started having a fever and very sore throat. She had high fever Saturday and Sunday when we decided to take her to the doctor. He told us she was contagious two days before onset of symptoms (Wednesday- Friday) and 3 days after (Saturday-Monday). She has been fever free since Monday, but we kept her home today (Tuesday) just to be safe.
She is going back to school tomorrow. Still has a bad cough. If she gave the flu to her classmates it was before having any symptoms… not much we can do to prevent the transmission.
Kids need to get sick… that’s it.

I’m the teacher who posted above about the outbreak in my class. I wish all parents thought like you. No, you can’t control any spread prior to the development of symptoms. My concern is always for the students who come to school with symptoms: fevers, fatigue, etc. I’m comfortable estimating that I have at least 3 students (out of 120) each day who feverishly sleep at their desks. I send them to the nurse, but by then they have shared germs with the class around them. It’s exhausting and, frankly, very selfish.

With high schoolers, how much of that is neglectful parenting vs. the kids not telling the parents they don’t feel well in the morning? It’s not like with younger kids where the parents have to stay home, obviously a high schooler could stay by themselves. And most get ready and out the door in the morning without parent assistance. I definitely remember a couple of times where I didn’t tell my parents about something because I was afraid of missing a test, after school activity, etc.

I’m not saying some of these parents aren’t telling their kids to go anyway if they do complain but it’s probably for different reasons than for younger kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My daughter (9) just tested positive for flu A on Sunday. She is going back to to school tomorrow.
She was 100% fine on Friday. Towards the end of the school day she started coughing hard. Came home at usual time and started having a fever and very sore throat. She had high fever Saturday and Sunday when we decided to take her to the doctor. He told us she was contagious two days before onset of symptoms (Wednesday- Friday) and 3 days after (Saturday-Monday). She has been fever free since Monday, but we kept her home today (Tuesday) just to be safe.
She is going back to school tomorrow. Still has a bad cough. If she gave the flu to her classmates it was before having any symptoms… not much we can do to prevent the transmission.
Kids need to get sick… that’s it.

I’m the teacher who posted above about the outbreak in my class. I wish all parents thought like you. No, you can’t control any spread prior to the development of symptoms. My concern is always for the students who come to school with symptoms: fevers, fatigue, etc. I’m comfortable estimating that I have at least 3 students (out of 120) each day who feverishly sleep at their desks. I send them to the nurse, but by then they have shared germs with the class around them. It’s exhausting and, frankly, very selfish.

You make me sick

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Look, lady, I sent my kid to school in a mask when she was sick so she wouldn't pass her cold on to other kids. Nobody else did that, so we stopped. We've been sick nonstop since September. It's not going to stop. Feel free to keep your own snowflake home, but nobody else is. Deal.

I hope you like subs.

- A teacher who caught Covid at work a month ago and is taking leave once again for some other virus. (And yes, I caught it at work. I’m always at work. I literally go nowhere else.)

This exchange exhausts me because it's unnecessarily combative. Who do either of you think is the enemy here?

Everyone is getting sick. Everyone. My family has had Covid, flu A, and two regular colds this fall. Since September. We kept kids home for 5 days for the flu and Covid (technically 7 days when you count the weekend) and 2-3 for each cold. So that's three weeks of school missed. But my kids have still been at school with coughs and runny noses despite all that time at home, and while I don't like it, I am sure they have helped spread some of these things. What am I to do? Pull them out of school? Who does that help? And yes, I'm getting this garbage too and it's miserable, caring for sick kids for day after day and then as soon as they are well enough to go back to school, I have a fever and am barely functioning. I am limping through work this fall as is my husband.

I don't want my kids' teachers to get sick. I don't want my kids to get sick, or their peers. I don't want to get sick. But there is a bunch of terrible stuff floating around and, like a lot of people, we're getting it.

No one is a snowflake. No one "likes subs." We're all in the same boat. People are doing the best they can. I sent my youngest to school in a mask today because she sounds kind of congested and might be coming down with something, but was behaving fine and no fever and again, SHE HAS MISSED THREE WEEKS OF SCHOOL TO ILLNESS THIS YEAR. I'm sure that sounds irresponsible to you but again, what would you have me do?

[Anonymous]

OP - do you have kids? Come back when you do.

- signed a teacher with 2 kids who is home with a sick kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Look, lady, I sent my kid to school in a mask when she was sick so she wouldn't pass her cold on to other kids. Nobody else did that, so we stopped. We've been sick nonstop since September. It's not going to stop. Feel free to keep your own snowflake home, but nobody else is. Deal.

I hope you like subs.

- A teacher who caught Covid at work a month ago and is taking leave once again for some other virus. (And yes, I caught it at work. I’m always at work. I literally go nowhere else.)

This exchange exhausts me because it's unnecessarily combative. Who do either of you think is the enemy here?

Everyone is getting sick. Everyone. My family has had Covid, flu A, and two regular colds this fall. Since September. We kept kids home for 5 days for the flu and Covid (technically 7 days when you count the weekend) and 2-3 for each cold. So that's three weeks of school missed. But my kids have still been at school with coughs and runny noses despite all that time at home, and while I don't like it, I am sure they have helped spread some of these things. What am I to do? Pull them out of school? Who does that help? And yes, I'm getting this garbage too and it's miserable, caring for sick kids for day after day and then as soon as they are well enough to go back to school, I have a fever and am barely functioning. I am limping through work this fall as is my husband.

I don't want my kids' teachers to get sick. I don't want my kids to get sick, or their peers. I don't want to get sick. But there is a bunch of terrible stuff floating around and, like a lot of people, we're getting it.

No one is a snowflake. No one "likes subs." We're all in the same boat. People are doing the best they can. I sent my youngest to school in a mask today because she sounds kind of congested and might be coming down with something, but was behaving fine and no fever and again, SHE HAS MISSED THREE WEEKS OF SCHOOL TO ILLNESS THIS YEAR. I'm sure that sounds irresponsible to you but again, what would you have me do?

+1. Well said. And I sure hope the teachers who would prefer the kids stay home more at least show a bit more grace in regards to missed work when they return, because unfortunately this has not been our experience with a number of teachers. My kids missing class is an annoyance to them.

[Anonymous]

Just keep in mind the kids - at least the little ones - tell us everything.

“Do you tell mommy you didn’t feel well?”
“Yes, but she told me she couldn’t stay home today.”

Or “Is anyone else sick at your house?”
“Yes, my brother threw up everything this morning.”

They tell us they took medicine, they tell us they asked to stay home, etc. And yes I have a touchless thermometer in my class and I use it. I also don’t let the sick kids do group work or come to the carpet. I feel badly for the 3 other kids at their table group.

[Anonymous]

Priming them for college - where now no sickness is an excused absence.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just keep in mind the kids - at least the little ones - tell us everything.

“Do you tell mommy you didn’t feel well?”
“Yes, but she told me she couldn’t stay home today.”

Or “Is anyone else sick at your house?”
“Yes, my brother threw up everything this morning.”

They tell us they took medicine, they tell us they asked to stay home, etc. And yes I have a touchless thermometer in my class and I use it. I also don’t let the sick kids do group work or come to the carpet. I feel badly for the 3 other kids at their table group.

Why are you grilling these kids? I keep my kids home when they are sick but this is really obnoxious. If you want to silently judge the parents, fine. If you think a kid is sick enough to need to be picked up, send them to the nurse and call the parents. But quizzing the kids on whether they asked to stay home or their parent took their temperature? It's gross.

FYI, my kid has gone through phases of school resistance where she will ask to stay home with a tummy ache. It's because she has had some social issues with a girl in her class, and also because she just really likes staying home. I know when my kid is sick and when she's just trying to get out of school because she'd rather stay home and hang out with mommy and play with her toys in her room than deal with some nonsense on the playground. My sense is that you probably don't know any of the kids in your class well enough to understand those kind of nuances.

[Anonymous]

I keep my kids home when they are sick, just the same as I stay home when I'm sick.

Sick = vomiting or diarrhea, a fever, or the first couple day of a bad enough cold that you truly feel run down

I think that is pretty reasonable and what the vast majority of people do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I keep my kids home when they are sick, just the same as I stay home when I'm sick.

Sick = vomiting or diarrhea, a fever, or the first couple day of a bad enough cold that you truly feel run down

I think that is pretty reasonable and what the vast majority of people do.

I’m an elementary teacher/mom and I mostly agree with you. The thing about whatever is going around right now is that it is making a lot of kids feel truly miserable for a lot longer than a typical cold. I’ve been home with my sick teens for over a week. The germs this year are next level.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just keep in mind the kids - at least the little ones - tell us everything.

“Do you tell mommy you didn’t feel well?”
“Yes, but she told me she couldn’t stay home today.”

Or “Is anyone else sick at your house?”
“Yes, my brother threw up everything this morning.”

They tell us they took medicine, they tell us they asked to stay home, etc. And yes I have a touchless thermometer in my class and I use it. I also don’t let the sick kids do group work or come to the carpet. I feel badly for the 3 other kids at their table group.

Why are you only asking if they told MOMMY? What about DADDY? Hmm?

[Anonymous]

This is WOHM life, bruh!!

[Anonymous]

Actually, colds help build human immune systems. Our kids shouldn't live in bubbles.

https://www.parentmap.com/article/is-getting-sick-good-for-preschoolers