Who is in the right?

[Rinmybell]

Firstly, this is about someone who is terminally ill, I don't know if it needed a trigger warning but thought I'd say in case people wished to stop reading here.

At uni I have a student in the same class, who has a life limiting condition. They are very poorly and at times it has been very touch and go. This is their second attempt at Uni. The first attempt, they lost a family member to the same illness and became very ill, also. So they dropped out. We will call them A.

Last week during seminar, A flagged up that another student (B) was ill. They were coughing and to their ears it sounded like a chest infection - which is very dangerous for A.
A spoke with the teacher and explained that one of them would have to go home. Teacher explained to B who was very upset and angry - and insisted they would not be going home, it would have to be A.
A is now very upset that extra provisions were not made for them - they have a lot of time off due to their preexisting condition and shouldn't have to take more time off for someone else's illness.
B, is cross also because they feel like they in themselves were well enough to attend, and they are not responsible for A's health.
A has now contracted a chest infection. Can't prove it was from B, but an email has now been sent out to all in the class that if any of us or children present with respiratory illness we are to stay at home.
This has now caused an outrage as people have complained today they've had to miss out today, as they have coughs.
There is another person in the class who's child also suffers with a life limiting illness, so they too agree that this should be the policy.
There is now quite a divide and people don't really know where they stand.
I already know what I think - but have been told IABU, so would kind of liked to know what others think.
So who is BU in your opinion?

A is BU unfortunately

A is unreasonable.

Unnfortunately, and with deepest sympathy A is being unreasonable.
Masks for A and the other student, masks for any student coughing. Hygiene etc. Other students perhaps notify school in cold and flu season - so A can access work online.

One peanut allergy sufferer=blanket ban on peanut butter in school packed lunch. The onus is on the majority to make allowances for the minority.
As a slight aside, having worked in education for a few decades, I've heard many ppl say that they disagree with this view nowadays as it encourages individuals to take less responsibility for themselves ie in not sharing friends food/being able to check ingredients etc, which they should be practicing.
Similarly, A is responsible for themselves and needs to prioritise things they can control ie face mask, alternative lecture notes etc. I do have sympathy, but you cannot expect the majority to change and put themselves at a disadvantage for one person, who isn't even taking every possible precaution themselves (mask). Obv ppl going in with fevers and the like are a different situation.

I think A is unreasonable.

I had the situation with my son's daycare where they took on an immune compromised child and said that any child who showed any form of illness would be sent home. Anytime another child sneezed, the parents were called and sent home. My son had minor hayfever during part of the year and they rang everyday and told me to pick him up, even though I had a doctors certificate for him. I ended up pulling him out, along with a large proportion of other parents in the centre as after the fifth day of missing work due to my child sneezing, I'd had enough. Whilst I understand that the parents of the child wanted them to attend daycare, it was unreasonable to expect so many parents to not attend work when there was nothing actually wrong with their own children as they were very worried about their child getting anything.

If this were a work environment would it be different? I.e. An expectation to take sick days in case of passing something on to a colleague despite being well enough to work?

It’s tricky.
B is probably paying about £12grand a year for the course. When they signed up they probably wouldn’t have even imagined they would be banned from attending if they had a cough even if they felt well. If that was going to be a condition for attendance then the uni should have made that clear before people selected the course.
I had a cough the entire time I was at uni. All the student accommodation was cold and damp and myself and everyone I lived with was ill the whole time.
Obviously A has A LOT more to lose here but but both people have an illness that is not their fault and that they would rather not have. Expecting people not to have coughs is an unrealistic expectation as they are such a common part of life, especially while at uni. I think the onus is on the uni to accommodate them both. Put on separate lectures perhaps. Because if it’s a course with lots of students then people will always be ill. How on earth are the lecturers supposed to police this?? Send people away if they look a bit ill? If they cough?

B has a confirmed chest infection and is on antibiotics. This means the viral infection that gave them the chest infection will cause people in general to be pretty unwell and resulted in A being hospitalised. On that basis, it would have been considerate to everyone to have taken a couple of days off.

As for general coughs and colds, no people cannot be expected to stay away and that would be unfair.

I understand A is angry. They’re trying to complete a course with a seriously compromised immune system. But as others have said, their anger is directed at the wrong place. Surely it would be better to do an open university course and perhaps do an additional module at university to get a taste of life there.

I have a compromised immune system. It is for me to protect me not the other way round. I have ME/CFS and too ill to work, have very little life. It’s not fair and friends talk about weekends having fun and ask what I did. Then they ask me. I downplay the fact that I was once again in bed for the whole weekend. My illness is life limiting and life shortening and it’s shit. But still I can’t expect others to be responsible for my health.

I’m far too ill to work/study etc. People with really bad colds, sickness bugs and coughs should tell me they are ill so I stay away from them and should not visit me when they’re ill. But that’s very different from staying away from me in a place of work or study.

The university is wrong to have let this happen. Its lecturers and students should not be exposed to this decision-making responsibility when so many different people's welfare is at stake. There are great risks here, and it's just unfair for university admissions and welfare to pass those risks on without guidance. From a social justice perspective, too, the university could model decision making in such situations.... but it (apparently) hasn't.

A certainly couldn’t demand this in the work place-people would be sacked for taking too much tome off!

Maybe A isnt well enough at the moment to be doing this sort of course. Students will have paid thousands of pounds to be there-they can’t reasonably be expected to miss lectures if they feel well.

A could die, or miss substantial amounts of the course (enough to fail)

B (and others with infectious diseases) is fundamentally OK and simply needs to take 24-48 hours off at the start of the disease. This would aid their recovery, and reduce the spread.

I think B is behaving appallingly.

If there was someone at my workplace with this sort of problem, the onus would be on their colleagues to stay away if even slightly unwell.

We have a team member who takes immunosupressants for an auto-immune disorder and is very prone to infection. If any of us have the slightest sniffle, upset stomach etc, we work from home until we're better.

Imo, that's a reasonable adjustment. It's a bit different at uni though, the students are paying to be there and most of them will only get one shot at it. I'm reluctant to say it, as I think A should be able to have as normal a time at uni as anyone else, but I think he should be the one to stay away.

A should surely be considering Open University or external classes if this is such a problem for them? Those options exist for people who are unable/unwilling to attend regular classes.

B (and others with infectious diseases) is fundamentally OK and simply needs to take 24-48 hours off at the start of the disease. This would aid their recovery, and reduce the spread

I agree with this! When my mum was dying a Mum at Nursery insisted on sending her kids in with a severe tummy bug thus infecting our family and many others. I explained it was really unfair as my mum could die at any time and with a tummy bug I couldn’t go near her in case I made her suffering worse. She shrugged and said “well I need a break”

B is not 'behaving appallingly'. A's immune system is not B's responsibility - and for all we know, B might be struggling with the coursework and terrified of missing anything and falling behind, hence the refusal to leave.

A is, by the sound of it, simply not well/strong enough to attend university, and would be better off doing the course via Open University or some other type of remote study. It's simply unfair to expect all the other students to keep on taking time off for the benefit of someone else's health.

I think it's selfish for sick people to go out into the world spreading germs.
If you're contagious stay out of public places please!

Legally speaking it's the same requirement as in a workplace - "reasonable adjustment". But what's reasonable at work VS at uni will be different - lots of people can Wfh when ill, not so manageable at uni. And some students have tier 4 visa requirements that mean they cannot miss lectures without a doctor's note.

The lecturers should not have been put in this position in the first place and need to be talking to their disability support team pronto.

Also - is it possible that A already has a plan for this in place and is not following it? Either way, it's up to individual students to make up a plan for on the spot.

B has a confirmed chest infection and is on antibiotics
The chest infection was only confirmed afterwards though, wasn't it? Initially, B only had a cough. It's completely different from someone in the throes of a severe tummy bug going in.
Still needs questioning as to why A needs everyone with a cough to stay off, yet doesn't regularly wear a facemask in close amd crowded situations, esp in winter when coughs and colds are guaranteed to be doing the rounds - you've been exposed even before some ppl realise they have the virus.

My son has CF and will no doubt face similar as he goes through life. However I think A is unreasonable because you can pick up infections from anywhere, if you are out in public, there will be bugs out there whether others are obviously ill or not. I don’t get paid if I don’t work so wouldn’t be staying at home if someone at work had a similar condition. It’s shit but then so much of CF is.

I think it's selfish for sick people to go out into the world spreading germs.
If you're contagious stay out of public places please!

So anyone with even a slight cold should stay in? The whole country would soon come to a standstill then!

i wouldnt want to be the one to make that decision.

can you spread a chest infection?
coughs and colds - we tell our children not to stay at home - you really can't tell university students to Stay at home.

If the Uni want to support A that’s fine and good but it shouldn’t be at the expense of all the other students. Presumably B and the rest of the group were not given any forewarning that A would be in their class so couldn’t make any decisions over whether to study with A or not. I would want to know in advance if my education (which I was paying bucketloads for) might be compromised by one of the other students.

And surely 'reasonable adjustment' can't be something that actively fucks things up for other people (ie by making them miss their classes for another person's benefit).

Is this a medical training course? You discussed good hygiene practices and being unsure how A will cope further along the course (placements on a ward?) as that would really imply she isn't capable of completing this course in her current condition.