To insist that my friend doesn't go back to work on Tuesday without a negative covid test result?

[RingPiece]

Teacher friend at a large inner city secondary school, says she's woken up feeling ill - sore throat, no sense of taste, temperature, shivers, etc. She's back to work on Tuesday. I've told her to get a covid test sent to her home and wait for the results before going back to work.

She said it's unlikely she'll get the test, send it back and get the results by Tuesday, as it's BH, and so will

'have to go in anyway , as it could just be a cold and I always go to work when I have a cold'

She also thinks she may be better by Tuesday.
Aibu in saying she really needs to get a test. Her school's huge and she'll come into contact with loads of staff on the Tuesday and then with the 90 children in her bubble on the Wednesday, not to mention all those commuters on her train and tube journey to and from the school.

She has symptoms and should therefore get a test, regardless of her job.
Could she get a same day drive through one. Most are open at weekends and usually the results come back quicker.

They should also try to contact their school or headteacher NOW to allow school to be prepared.

Whilst it's not great timing it's just one of those things. It's going to happen in and off throughout the next few months.

For anyone to go into work, into school or even just out anywhere is if they have symptoms is selfish and she could put her colleagues at risk.

She's being massively selfish

This is so wrong, I really despair.

And if she can't see sense, and there are lots of people as antisocial,as her, then there will only be a couple of weeks until schools are closing again.

Plus the human cost in terms of impact on lives of anyone who catches it in her workplace (not just death)

I am really very jealous of all these people getting speedy results. I had my test on Thursday and I'm still waiting.

Just as well I'm not a teacher, or a teenager waiting for the all clear, with s whole bubble poised to isolate if it's positive. Can you imagine how many people are merrily passing it round whilst I twiddle my thumbs waiting?

Absolutely ridiculous.

She needs to get a test, and she shouldn't have contact with colleagues or kids until she has, but good luck to her with that. People on twitter are reporting long delays or being sent to Inverness for a drive in test when they live in Surrey.

@Trackandtrace

And this is why vunerable children/staff or those with vunerable family at home are so concerend about returning to school. The risk is bad enough that social distancing is imposible byt then you have families or staff breaking the rules with parties and to top it off you have thise who disregard the risk and will attend work or send their children in with symptoms

And yet it is us parents with genuine concerns that are being treated like we are too anxious, unhinged individuals who will risk our childrens mental health and ruin their future pospects for nothing.

Please tell your friend that IF it is covid she could kill someone. Even if it isnt covid and a child becomes ill with this bug they will have the worry of is it covid and if the school ask her 'did you have a negative test?' How will it look to admit no i didnt take a test and came in anyway.
She will at best bring herself and her school into desrespute and at worse be the cause of deaths in her area.

This exactly. I'm terrified of my Y11 and Y13 kids returning to school and college. I'm in the sheilding group (solid Organ Transplant) and when I read stories like this it makes me sick.

How can a 'teacher' be so selfish?

My sil is a doctor. She had covid. She had the following

Loss of taste
Loss of smell.
Tired
Nausea
Aches and pains
Vomited.....

And yet it is us parents with genuine concerns that are being treated like we are too anxious, unhinged individuals who will risk our childrens mental health and ruin their future pospects for nothing

I've seen that happening all too often.

And it's a shame, as it's perfectly clear that the concerns are well placed.

Pretty sure her school would take the opposite view.

I mean the school wouldn't want someone in with symptoms

This is something that concerns me as a teacher.
Teachers are notorious for going into work when they're ill and really shouldn't, myself included.
I'm worried that this attitude will persist despite Covid and this will be how it spreads in schools.
🙁
I'm hoping school leaders send a clear message to staff that the normal rules no longer apply and encourage them to do the sensible thing.

If I thought she was going to go into school with those symptoms, I would phone the headteacher.

I'm furious at the testing delays. Imagine I'm a child in your child's class. I had a fever on Thursday, got sent home for a test. I did the test and I'm waiting for results. Meanwhile, none of the rest of my bubble are isolating, they keep going in, seeing family, meeting friends, all the while potentially infectious, having caught it from me. I still don't have my result so let's say I get it today (ha!). I was probably infectious since Wednesday and so my bubble have been exposed. In the last 5 days, how many people have been exposed whilst I'm waiting for results? Good luck, Track and Trace, finding everyone.

This delay in test results is shameful and will cause chaos.

She might as well attend a mass rave in Manchester

Book a drive-in test online. The testing station I went to was not busy so it was very quick. Results next day.

How does someone become a teacher with such a low level of reasoning and comprehension? She’s frightened she will get in trouble for calling in sick but not frightened of causing an outbreak that closes her school and infects her colleagues?

Tell her to get tested. We're not even allowed into the building with a temperature!
Im in a big inner city school and I know if I get sick I'm really going to get I'll. my go has sent me for a test 3 times before they can give me steroids, if she were my colleague she could potentially kill me if she had it. I know there will be lots of others in her school like this.

Is she hoping to get the school closed by infecting others?
There a lot of people on here just gagging for schools to closeto avoid work so the can crow 'Told you so' -maybe she is one of those.

Tell her to get a test before she risks putting the whole school on lockdown, keeping kids from their education, parents from work, and risking the lives of her colleagues and pupils.

Really selfish and disappointing.

If she’s in London she might be wrong about the start of term as London schools I think start back on Wednesday. So she should be able to get test results back by then, unless of course she’s a totally imaginary teacher at a totally imaginary school, who weirdly woke up on Saturday evening feeling ill (use of “she’s woken up” rather than “ she woke up”) and unwisely confided in her friend who had nothing better to do than to go straight to a social media parenting site to discuss it.

Of course she needs to get tested. If she can get to a test centre, she will get the results pretty quickly.

Also - she will be on inset for the first couple of days. All she will miss is training which should be accessible remotely for this reason. If that's not possible she can catch up at a later date. No big deal. Passing Covid or even a cold in this day and age onto staff and then kids is unacceptable really. She needs to think.

@borntobequiet Inset day for me is Tuesday and pupils return Weds.

This is something I worry about as a teacher. I would never go into school with symptoms but I am very aware of the ‘teacher guilt’ that pushes you to go into work when ill. I also have children so can see myself having to take time off with them too. Am hoping all our employers are understanding to this otherwise this will contribute to a rise in cases.

The delays in testing also worry me. ‘Luckily’ I live in an area where cases are rising so we have mobile testing units but am aware from Staffroom threads that people are having to travel miles or wait up to a week for a result.

All these factors will contribute to disruptive education.

Of course she needs to test. But given U4T appear to condone lying in order to avoid going for a test, or in order to send their children to school, or maybe to avoid quarantine, I'd just assume she was of that ilk.

Relative took a friend for testing yesterday and results were back same day so anyone who is thinking of delaying testing just because it's a BH weekend is a bit of a muppet.

Teacher guilt shouldn’t apply at the moment, these aren’t normal times. It probably is just a cold but she doesn’t know that. She has some of the symptoms on the list requiring testing/self isolation so this is completely clear cut.

I think your friend is BU 100%, however I do think that this symptomatic of the presenteeism culture in this country that is particularly prevalent in reaching. In all the schools I've worked at you're made to feel pathetic for taking a day off unless you're unconscious in an operating theatre. You're still expected to provide all the work for your classes, which often means planning a whole day of lessons at 5am while feeling like death because they need to be something the kids can crack on with supervised by a cover supervisor or non subject specialist.

To be clear, she is being MASSIVELY unreasonable... But there's going to have to be an enormous culture shift in schools if people are going to isolate effectively!