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.

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.

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.

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?

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.)

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.

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.

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.

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.