Sending your sick kid to school costs other people time, money

Americans know how to give — 60 percent of the sum total of all foreign aid comes from the United States alone.

More than any other culture, many of our holidays and special occasions are honored with gift giving. Housewarmings, anniversaries, weddings, graduations, Mothers and Fathers Day, baby showers and, of course, Christmas and birthdays.

Over the next few weeks I can look forward to more gifts from my fellow Valley neighbors. Yes, my children will be given things by others to bring home and share with the family. They will come home from school with such niceties as fever, coughing, sneezing, dripping noses and even the occasional puking. How lovely!

I don’t get upset at my kids. It’s not their fault. But I can’t say I feel so charitable toward some of their classmates’ parents. Far too often parents send their children to school even though they’re hacking, wheezing or have green goo dripping down their faces. Why on earth do some of you folks do that? I often wonder if the thought even occurs to these parents that their child is entering a building and will be in close contact all day with other children and teachers.

I’ve heard the excuses: “My little angel knows to always wash his/her hands” or “Junior knows to always cover his mouth when he’s sneezing.”

Right. Sure thing. Your child is a paragon of hygiene when you’re not around. It’s all those other children who are making everybody sick, right? Give me a break!

But nothing makes me gripe more than when I hear, “I just can’t take the time off work.” That one steams me. It is such an example of pure selfishness! You can’t take the time off work, so you put your child on the school bus and send him or her off to school where he or she can infect dozens of other people and cause other children to miss school after they become sick? You’re OK forcing me to take time off my work instead, either because I have to care for my sick child or because my son or daughter brought home the bug and passed it along to me?

On days like that, I fantasize about getting my hands on those parents who know their child is sick but send them off to school anyway. Before you say some people don’t get sick leave, allow me to say, “Tough cookies!” This is your child and your responsibility. By sending your child to school sick, you are potentially costing other people time and money after other children (and perhaps their parents) end up catching whatever it is the child has.

Wouldn’t it be interesting if we could track just one child being sent to school with a bad cold? I would like to see the pyramid that follows after he gets, say, four other children and one teacher sick. He then goes home and infects their parents and siblings. Perhaps those family members, unaware that they’re sick, then go to work or other schools and proceed to infect others, who then take it home to their families, and so on.

Don’t get me wrong; I don’t believe we can eliminate sickness in the schools. It happens. We’re human beings and sometimes we go off to work or school with the crud and we don’t even know it until it’s too late.

But with six children, I can’t even begin to count the times I’ve driven them to school and seen their fellow classmates arriving with the cold sweats, sneezing and coughing or with snot running down their faces. I’ve been in the front office when angry parents have stormed in to pick up their children after the school nurse called them because their child arrived sick. I’ve even witnessed angry mothers chewing out staff because they had to leave work to come pick up their son/daughter.

Oh, gosh. Gee. I’m sorry. My bad. I forgot that you come first — not your child, not my child, not the teachers. No, it’s about whatever we can do in order to accommodate your work needs, up to and including getting sick ourselves.

I’m reminded of my time working for the Department of Defense. During awards ceremonies, one of the things they liked to hand out were “Sick Leave Saver” pins. These were given to people who had banked up massive amounts of sick leave because they never called in sick. Oh, what heroes! I wonder how many man-hours they cost thanks to all the other workers they infected because they came to work sick? Believe me, nobody clapped when these people were called up to get their pin.

Forgive me my rather scathing gripe. I get this way around this time of year. Already my wife and I are stocking up on medicine and preparing for it. But maybe this year, some of you can help yourselves and your community out. If little Johnny or Susie has a fever, is sneezing, seems more tired and worn-out than usual — please take the time to assess and if you think they might be sick, keep them home.

After the fever breaks or they first begin to look a bit better, give it at least one more day before you send them back to school. When they go back to school, make sure they’re wearing fresh-from-the-washer clothes. Let the school nurse and/or their teacher know what their symptoms were. Tuck a little bottle of hand sanitizer into their backpack and encourage them to use it all day. Who knows, maybe I can actually make it through the first few months of school without a house full of sick children.

Ben Compton is a Palmer resident and publishes his column as “Compton’s Corner,” the same title used by his grandmother, Phyllis Compton, a longtime Frontiersman columnist.