Reply to “Why Did We Ever Send Sick Kids to School?”

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote]There is no childcare for sick children. You can't send them to daycare or school. Period. As a parent, it is YOUR job to care for your child when they are sick. Exclusively. Period. It is the fault of YOUR boss and YOUR job if you can't take a sick day to care for your child. It is ridiculous to suggest we should have "school" (babysitting) available for 365 days a year to accommodate your employer. Do you know how much that would cost taxpayers? We are not a babysitting service, and we are certainly not an infirmary. As a teacher, I'm absolutely not responsible for advocating for your sick leave, nor would you advocate for teachers to get additional sick leave to account for all the illnesses we contract being exposed to your sick children. I already see threads here complaining every time their child's teacher calls out, as if it is any of their business why. In the past, I have reached out to let parents know I would be out on x day (as a courtesy, not a requirement), and had them ask me the reason for the absence. Totally inappropriate.[/quote]

Is anyone else floored by the tone of this post?  I mean, the complete contempt for parents and kids is just stunning.  The complete lack of empathy for parents who aren't privileged enough to have sick leave and backup childcare is just stunning.  And I tend to agree that sick kids should be kept home whenever possible.

This attitude, right here, is why parents are losing patience with teachers.[/quote]

I probably would have been shocked by it a year ago but now it doesn’t even register with me. They hate us and hate our kids. Sad but true. [/quote]
What kind of attitude do you expect from a group of people you spend all day vilifying? That we would be thrilled to contract your germs and agree that whatever you’re doing all day is much more important than parenting? If I hear one more time that returning to school is “a risk we must take” I will scream. You don’t mean we-you mean teachers and school staff, and the “risk” is death.

In this thread you have parents arguing that because it’s stressful for their child to have to make up work that they’ll come to school ill. As an adult with a job, I’m also expected to make up anything I miss when I’m out, even if it means working more than usual for a few days. Why should your 16 year old be any different? In college, your high schooler will also have to independently complete make up work. That’s life.

There are also parents here saying that they’re not responsible for “protecting teachers from every germ”. If anyone had actually read the article that this thread is supposed to discuss, it was written by a parent whose asthmatic child is often hospitalized after exposure to “minor” illnesses at school. When I was a student in elementary school, the principal had to send out a pleading letter to families to stop sending kids who were queasy or had diarrhea to school because there was a nasty stomach bug going around and one of the first graders was undergoing treatment for leukemia. It could have killed the child. It doesn’t just impact teachers. We know you hate teachers and they should be exposed to all your children’s germs to punish them for being so selfish and terrible, but unfortunately you can’t control who gets sick when you send Johnny to school with the flu (I mean, “a cough and a low grade fever” per the parent I was responding to). 
[/quote]

If you are a teacher, you aren't doing your profession any favors as you continually reinforce the fact that you are hostile, dismissive, and not particularly bright. Otherwise, you would understand that public health guidance changes depending on the prevailing public health concerns. What was once not a reason to exclude a child from school, i.e. a cold, requires school exclusion in the age of COVID.  Similarly, in my school, diarrhea was not a reason to exclude children from school as long as there is no blood or mucus in the stools and it could be contained in the toilet (and the child could participate in activities). However, in the situation you describe, when there is an outbreak of a viral illness or a child who is immunocompromised, that advice might change. It doesn't make parents who heeded the guidelines monsters or villains.

Personally,  I think the part of the article that mentions the problem of kids coming to school with "snot" is ridiculous. That's a cold, and keeping kids out of school for every would result in weeks, of not months, of missed school. I know it's not important to you, but we, as a society, need to make compromises for the sake of education.

As to making up work, the point isn't that kids have to make up the work. The point is that teachers don't give them the opportunity to make it up. So if you want to encourage sick teenagers to stay home, have a chat with your colleagues and look in the mirror and ask why they aren't more helpful to teenagers who have been out sick. That's completely on the teaching profession, not parents. [/quote]
Teachers are stupid because they don’t agree that it’s cool to send your kids to school with active diarrhea? That’s a wild take. Further, did your child needs help in the bathroom, you’ll also be getting a call. There’s no way I’m calling administration to cover my class so I can expose myself to your child’s bodily fluids, when you, the parent, knowingly sent them to school sick. This is why schools are closed in so many areas, sorry. Parents think that school means abdicating all parental responsibility, five days a week. It does not, whether you work or not. Teachers know this attitude won’t change this year or next, when COVID will certainly still be circulating. Oftentimes COVID symptoms present as cold symptoms in children. You’re not going to be able to send a coughing child to school, nor a child with a headache, a runny nose, or a sore throat. This is the new normal, and you’ll have to get them tested if you want to return them to school, or complete a mandatory quarantine period.

If you think every person with a compromised immune system is known to you, you’re living in a fantasy world. You have a responsibility to the community to prevent the spread of viral illnesses by keeping your child home when sick. You admit that you don’t intend to do that. Conversation over. [/quote]

Hahahaha you think kids will be kicked out of school for a headache. It’s fun to say extreme things that are completely unreasonable and not plausible at all! I too like to live in angry fantasy land. [/quote]

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