Being sick is bound to occur because like a mosquito, no matter how often you swat it away, it will still get you in the end. Sickness is a year-round annoyance that never really goes away. Whether it be allergies in the spring and summer or a cold in the fall and winter, sickness eventually attacks anyone and everyone.
Being at such a competitive school, missing class to stay home is not always an option. With a majority of students taking honors or AP classes, missing one day can lead to taking three or four days of catch up. Plus, with those who play sports, missing class means not being allowed to go to practice. Therefore, those people hacking up their lungs or using an entire tissue box per class refuse to stay home and infect everyone who is healthy.
Quarantining those people is not possible. “I’m never really sick, but being here, it’s impossible to miss school,” junior Nabila Okudo said.
This flu and common cold both occur every year and have different symptoms. The current version was first spotted around the third week of school and it seemed a lot of people had caught it. But gradually, it has run its course and now only a few people here and there are showing it. However, it will inevitably show up stronger and worse as the weather gets colder. “Stay home because I don’t want to get sick,” math teacher Eva O’keefe said.
For most people, this plague began as a small cough. Refusing to miss school and have to deal with all the makeup work, students would try to justify it for themselves and say how it was only something caught in their throat. But then came the congestion and runny noses that no amount of tissues could handle. Aches and tiredness would soon take over the body and staying at school only felt harder. Some people would give up trying to fight their illness and go to the nurse where “The most common illnesses were nausea, headache and stomach aches,” health technician Unni Stokkevag said.
Students still leave school early when they feel sick but due to the one lunch, they usually either leave during fifth period or later around 2 p.m. The number of students leaving during class periods has become less scattered throughout the day but still occurs, just now it is all at once.
In order to not leave in the middle of class several students leave, “right before lunch starts fifth period and are signing out through the health room because they want to wait that first half and get through it and then leave,”,attendance secretary Teri Buck, said.
Being sick is unbearable sometimes and no one wants to deal with it. But to those who are sick and refuse to leave, please consider taping a sign to yourself or holding one up warning those who are healthy to dodge you at all costs in order to prevent further spread of the plague.
Ava Castelli
Staff Writer
