Reply to A plea: please stop sending your sick kids to school

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Then teachers need to make it less stressful for then to miss. Starting n grade 4 i leave it up to my kids. Vomiting is stay home until 24hrs puke free, but anything else is up to them. Their classes are intense and they feel the pain if they miss important lessons.[/quote]

I meet virtually with my sick AP students at the end of the school day and deliver the whole lesson to them. I want them HOME.

I’m reading through these posts astounded at the “teachers signed up for this” and “my kid is going to school no matter what” posts. We really have lost all sense of community. [/quote]

There's been maybe one or two "my kid is going to school no matter what" posts, and they have not been supported.

Nearly every parent on this thread has stated that they keep their kids home with fevers, vomiting, if they seem to tired or ill to leave the house, and for the first few days of a bad cold. But as we have explained repeatedly, we cannot keep children home for every hint of illness, because then they would be home most days from October to March. Which means yes, sometimes kids are going to spread viruses at school. And if not at school, at activities, on playgrounds, at home, while traveling, etc.

It is a fact that if you teach or perform any other public facing job during cold and flu season, you will likely have to interact with people who are sick and you are more likely to get sick yourself. I don't know how to sugarcoat this. I have worked in a field for a number of years (not teaching) that was like this, and it sucked. Though I will also note that in that job, I made close to minimum wage, had no guaranteed sick leave, and could be fired for missing too many days of work. Fortunately, teachers have guaranteed leave and are paid much more fairly than that, and union protections that would prevent wrongful termination. I am not complaining about these benefits -- I think everyone should get them. I'm glad teachers do.

The sub situation is what it is. We will always need subs, and presently there are not enough, and the things necessary to fix that (better pay, more available training for potential subs) are not part of the system. But idly threatening parents with "terrible subs" if they send their kid to school with the sniffles because you hate that your job necessarily involves working with human beings who might be sick during the season in which many, many human beings get sick, is absurd. Kids are going to show up at school with a cough or the sniffles.

I am currently being harassed by the school district because my child has missed so many days of school this fall with illness. And guess what, she's coming down with something else, I'm certain of it. In a couple hours, I'll have to make a judgment call on whether I send her in today based on how she feels and sounds. If it's just congestion and a little cough, I think I have to send in her in even though I'd rather keep her home and in fact woke up at 4:30 am to get some work done so that if she does have to stay home, I can spend the morning with her. If I do keep her home, I expect a call from the district this afternoon letting me know how important it is for her to go to school and demanding documentation for her absence. Tell me again that it is only teachers who are "sucking it up" through this terrible cold and flu season and how irresponsible and selfish parents are. Go ahead, tell me ALL about it.[/quote]

I’m the PP and I’ll state this very clearly: I am not your enemy. I’m the teacher taking 40 minutes out of my own time to virtually conference with your sick child so they don’t get behind. I’ll then spend 30 with a child from a different class. I’m also QUITE aware getting sick is part of my job. I caught Covid just a month ago from work and had to spend 5 days home, sitting on my laptop for 10 hours each day frantically responding to emails and getting sub work back immediately (with comments). I am trying to HELP. If you review my post, nowhere did I say that recovering / coughing kids should stay home. I said the miserable, feverish ones should. Perhaps you don’t send your child that way, but plenty of parents do.

As one of the “I’m bending over so far backwards to keep education afloat during shortages” types, you need to understand that your tone above is misplaced. [/quote]

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