*No Excuses

Warning: I am about to go on another one of my rants.....if you are not up for it, you may want to exit here. This is stemming from the death, last night, of a 6th grade boy at our Middle School.

Various viruses have plagued our tiny little town since Christmastime. I know that no matter what school, in what town, in what state....you will have epidemics that just seem to spiral out of control, but this......this is really starting to make me literally MAD. I am sorry to say, but I have to put a lot of blame on the parents as well as the school district.

Parents:

By God, if your child is coughing everywhere, is throwing up, having diarrhea, fever.......KEEP THEM HOME!!!! And KEEP THEM HOME until your child has gone 24 FULL HOURS without any of the above ailments with NO MEDICINE TO PREVENT IT (like Tylenol to bring down fever). Number one, if your child has those things, chances are he or she is going to get at least one other kid sick and from there, another kid sick and it goes on and on. While most kids can handle a little virus here and there without residual harm, there is always the chance that there could be a compromised immune system or complications (like in this heart-wrenching story of Trenton Lindsey). If parents would just KEEP THEM HOME, this would not spread around like wildfire to the entire school district and town.

School District:

When you send home letters to the parents stating how many days our child has missed and threatening that they will not pass because of excess absences (9 days in a semester), SOME parents may feel pressured or bullied into knowingly, sending their UNWELL children to school for fear of the recourse. While I understand that there are state and district rules/laws that need to be followed, I also believe that this holds those rules/laws responsible for sick children attending school and infecting other children! At what point does the district want to take action and fix this mess? If a child has made up all work and tests, also has passing grades, and the parent has sent notes acknowledging the absences (so as to not let truancy be excused)........THEN DON'T SEND HOME THREATENING NOTES SAYING OUR CHILD WILL POSSIBLY FAIL IF HE OR SHE MISSES ANOTHER DAY OR TWO!!!!! These notes need to be reworded, desperately!

I am so sorrowed and my heart is beyond heavy....it is broken for the family of Trenton. We are so sorry to have lost him. But I can not help but wonder if his risk, in any way, could have been minimized.

And also, as a side note, viruses are not resolved with antibiotics. You can not just take medicine and be "not contagious"......it will have to run it's course. For example.....Pink Eye....real true pink eye is called Viral Conjunctivitis. There is no miracle medicine to make you not contagious. You can get some eye drops from your ophthalmologist to help relieve the symptoms like itching or pain, but you can not just get some antibiotic drops and have it go away or be contagious free. Bacteria based illnesses are treated with antibiotics. There is a difference.