Recently, the school health office has seen an uptick in the number of students sent home in the middle of the school day because they have been ill.

Specifically, according to health office nurse Janet Verson, the school has been forced to send whooping cough notifications to nearly 10 classes after sick students exposed their peers to the illness, a number much greater than previous years on record.

“Although the number of diagnosed whooping cough cases has been in the single digits, students who have gone to school while sick with it and have potentially exposed their entire class and teacher,” Verson said.

Principal Paul Robinson brought up this issue of students attending school while sick in an email to the Falcons, reminding students that it is required that if students have fevers or feel nauseous, they must not come back to school within 24 hours of the conclusion of the event.

“Although I know it’s hard to stay at home when you have a test or something similar,” Verson said, “it’ll prevent you from relapsing with the illness and spreading it around school.”