With the recent disease outbreaks at Mills, sickness has spread across the school among students. Many have reported contracting illnesses like tuberculosis and mononucleosis (mono), often taking weeks to recover. Sickness has proved to be a constant cause of absences here at Mills, so why stay at home when you’re sick, when you could spread it to others instead.
To delve deeper into the medical details, we asked Mills’ Health Aide, Maritza Fernandez, for the benefits of coming to school sick. “When students come to school sick, they contaminate things around them as well as their fellow students,” Fernandez explains. She adds on, saying, “It gives a chance for students who haven’t experienced that illness to introduce their bodies to it, and helps build a sort of immunity against those sicknesses.” Fernandez highlights an important aspect of coming to school sick, as it helps expose the sickness to others as well. As the sickness continues to spread, it creates immunity among our students as they recover together. Because students infect one another and eventually heal, they become resistant against certain diseases and help defend their bodies from them.
“A lot of the time, students leave school early when they don’t feel well, when instead they should be staying in class,” Fernandez notes.
Staying home from school does not only keep illness away from others, it also keeps students away from their work. Regarding that missed work, Sophie Liang (9) states, “When I skip school because I’m sick, I miss out on a lot of assignments that I need to catch up on and make up.” Liang notes the frustration of needing to take extra time to stay up to date with the rest of her class. However, this can be solved if sick students attend school, as they are able to continue learning and will not have to worry about making up classwork. Liang further emphasizes that a sick day should serve as any other school day, and coming to school will boost attendances as well as solidify academic performance at Mills.
As flu season continues, Fernandez hopes that more students will come into school sick, given its many benefits. Liang finished, saying, “I don’t think people come [to school] when they’re sick as often as they should.”
