Feeling sick? To go or not to go to school

Junior Maggy Liu woke up with a sore throat and a bad cough on a dreary Tuesday morning. Her nose was running, and she dragged herself out of bed to get a tissue. But Liu could not afford the luxury of taking a day off to recover, so she reluctantly got ready for a long day at school.

This is the story many students’ lives as they weigh the consequences of whether they should stay home from school at the cost of accumulating make-up homework, missing tests and losing in-class participation points, or go to school and spread illnesses to students and staff, who in turn also cannot afford to stay home and get better. Thus begins the all-too familiar cycle of sicknesses that arise this time of year.

Some students are adamant about staying home because they feel that not only will they be incapable of performing at their highest ability by coming to school sick, but they will also stay sick longer.

“It’s better to stay at home for around a day and get completely better than to keep pushing yourself to go to school because sometimes it can make your sickness drag on for weeks,” sophomore Emily Chiang said.

Many teachers are also understanding and willing to accommodate students who miss school by implementing policies that enable students to make up missed work, which encourages students to stay home and get better instead of worrying about school. But other students find it difficult to finish make-up assignments along with newly assigned homework.

“It’s kind of a challenge, because even though they give you a day to make up your work, there is also more work given the same day,” junior Allison Kim said. “Unless I have the weekend, it is sometimes hard to make up everything.”

Students not only find it difficult to make up assignments, but they also feel that by staying home they will miss key instruction.

“It’s hard to learn by yourself what the teacher taught and explained during a class period you miss,” sophomore Taylor Moran said.

Kim experienced this hardship before and found it difficult to finish the make-up assignments.

“One time I was sick for three days and I missed a lot of class last year. I missed a lot of math class and it was really hard to make up the work,” Kim said.

Due to such experiences, students ultimately make the decision of whether they should stay home when they are sick at the expense of having to finish more work later or go to school, based on the extent of how sick the student is.

“If I have a fever then I normally don’t go. But if I can get out of bed or I feel OK, then I’ll go,” Kim said.

According to history teacher Jerry Sheehy, many students fall sick around finals, a crucial time to be in school, and the students do not want to miss these class periods. Consequently, illnesses spread rapidly to other staff and students and cause a ripple effect of sicknesses through out the school.

Instead of coming to school, according the Sheehy, “kids who are sick should be staying home and taking care of their health.”

Students find such advice easy to ignore, however, as they struggle to answer the question of what will happen to all their schoolwork if they decide to stay home.