to be annoyed at parents who send children to school when they are ill?

[heartmoonshadow]

I am a teacher and I went back to work last week after my maternity - I managed unlike a lot of teachers to travel the 25 miles to work in the snow and ice and was fully prepared to teach. I had on average only 6 pupils per day (out of a class of 30) who managed to get in - even though they all live within walking distance. So why is it that the parent of a violently sick child decided to send him to school to spread his bug? The child looked positively deathly when he arrived - he was pushed through the front door of the school - had he have made it to my class I would have refused to take him in. Within 2 minutes of taking off his coat he projectile vomited in the class and we had to call his parents to fetch him - this took them 3 hours - btw neither of them work they in my opinion just wanted some peace after Christmas!

Anyway as a result I now have this awful bug and I have to be off work - DH an DS have gone to stop at MIL for a few days so that they don't catch it. I feel awful letting down my school and my class after 1 week back.

So am I being unreasonable should parents with sick children keep their child away from others? I also worry how many of the other children in the classroom that day got the bug - I assume it is just because my immunity is down after being away from school for 6 months.

YANBU just plain selfish and stupid on the parents part, just so that they can have some peace and quiet.

YANBU at all I've had words with a lazy cow whose son was hacking all over my sons neck in the line. One boy was sent home from school after vomming everywhere and was back the very next day and I'm sick of it TBH.

Yanbu.
Drives me nuts too.
Fair enough when they have a head cold, but anything involving a temperature, green snot or bug-related puking/poo is a no-no.

I don't think a child has to be seriously ill not to be at school. Just being unwell is enough IMO. Have to think of the wider picture and of everyone else affected when a poorly child goes into a classroom. They are massive hotbed of germs as it is!

YANBU - sick children should be kept at home, and i disagree with you peacocks, well not disagree as such, yes its hard of both parents working, but people should be prepared to take time off work to care for sick children surely?

I remember last year at DDs playgroup a mother talking to the TA, saying "oh well, i much rather she was kept busy bla bla bla, ive given her calpol if she gets poorly give me a ring" i was . Now i know that kids pick up bugs at school and you can't be too precious about it but this child was really sick, and her sickness was really catching - resulting in the nursery having to be closed for two days to be disinfected due to all but three of the children contracting the bug and having to be kept home. Completely selfish!!!

Ive had dilemmas myself where i have sent DD into school running a low grade temperature which i knew would come to nowt, but i spoke to the teacher and asked what she thought - and she said, you cant keep them off at every sniffle but if a child is actually properly ill, WHY would you want to send them to school?

But pogles, the difference there is that after "coughing wrong" your DS is unlikely then to vomit all over the floor at school.

Hacks me off when we're teachers/TAs are wading around in a couple of inches of sick and the child says "well I was sick last night/this morning too, but Mummy said I had to come to school."

Thanks. Would Mummy like to come in and clear it up then?

No,I agree clam ,and if I'd thought for a minute he was ill we'd have been back home.My only point,which was that not all children who have been sick are actually ill,doesn't apply if a child just been sick again! Sorry! (I've seen a child at work who was basically silent and looked awful,said to Mum that we weren't getting anywhere and I thought they should come back on another day,only to have her say that her DD,aged 5,had had a high temperature when she picked her up from school,but she'd thought they'd come anyway.Poor kid - and thanks for the exposure to the bug...)

The rule is no return to school within 48 hours of last episode of vomiting or diarrhoea

YABU as a teacher you should know how much pressure of 'good' attendance is put on parents and the consequences if the 'good' attendance isnt met.

Having a ds who has time off for medical reasons for which i have provided evidence, i am still reported and hauled into meetings with attendance officers about what i can do to improve on his attendance.

If ds has just one day off for being ill or having a bug, i have to take him to the drs, wasting the drs time and mine, just so i can provide evidence.

Parents can win.

If DS has a temp then I would keep him home, but this is because he is very rarely ill (like once a year) and a temp has always turned into something more serious.

However some kids I know can get temps quite often/have snotty running pretty much constantly. If their parents kept them off everytime they would never be at school.

That sentence was a mess, will try not to do multitask in future.

A girl in my DD's class was sent in, having vommited all the way home on the school minibus despite the schools '24 hours' policy (I actually think the school should have refused to accept her, but that is another issue).

My DD caught it, but being a strapping 6 yr old was better in a few days.

But despite taking every precaution known to man my DS then 18 mths caught it - he has a faulty heart valve, a severe metabolic condition, asthma etc etc. After less than 4 vomiting episodes in 24 hours he was having a serious ketotic episode, virtually unconscious and had to be in hospital on a drip for 5 days.

It was rotorvirus, the hospital confirmed there had been a big outbreak of it at the hospital - funnily enough the original girl who was ill at school, her mother is an A&E Reg.

YANBU but please read the "poorly or lazy" thread. Also, agree with Morloth it is hard to tell is someone is really ill many of them are snotty or slugish and reluctant to go in everyday.

lucky poor DS

Lucky, poor little thing.

My ds caught impetigo (low immune system too) just before Christmas and was in hospital for 5 days on IV antibiotics to prevent septicemia and then had a further 7 days off on oral antibiotics and was still infectious.

Despite provided the school with his hospital discharge sheet and evidence of oral antibiotics. This earned me an appointment with the LEA attendance officer and i now have to provide medical evidence even if ds is sent home from school ill!

The whole attendance thing is very conflicting.

I was going to start a thread about this

In the school newsletter yesterday "and we congratulate x on his 100% attendance for 4 years running"

yeah and I am quite sure that x hasn't been sick once in all that time

Message withdrawn

When we were ill as children, my mother sent a note with us to school the next day "Triggles was absent because it was necessary." Occasionally, she'd add "due to illness" to the end. But never EVER stated what the illness was or clarified it any further. I imagine she was a nightmare for the school to deal with.

That being said, we were never kept home from school unless we had a fever or were contagious.

couldn't get away with that now,they would be round at the house before you could blink

I'd echo the pleas to consider more vulnerable kids.

My DS has febrile convulsions so a high temperature means us worrying about a possible fit and consequent trip to A&E. Not as bad as other posters but no fun for any of us. So I would really appreciate him not being exposed to more high-temperature viruses than absolutely necessary.

There are different kinds of vulnerable kids. My dd was hounded by the school for several years because of her (genuine and well attested) ill health and disability. She now self-harms when she feels too ill to go to school and has threatened suicide, as she can't imagine that the adults in charge of her education would actually try to help her (she is at a lovely school, but is emotionally damaged). Years of seeing your parents being investigated by social workers and treated as negligent parents can do that to you.

She is at a different school now, but it has taken me some time to get my head round the fact that if she is taken ill, the school won't refuse to look at her and just assume that she is shamming. Because that was the case for so long.

When she was in hospital and educated at the hospital school, that was put down as unauthorised absence. When she was unable to get up the stairs due to being in a wheelchair and unable to walk, that was reported to the EWO as "X refuses to walk up the stairs". When she fell ill in school and they had to call me in, I was treated to a long monologue (in her hearing) as to why they thought she was shamming (they hadn't bothered to take her temperature, ear infection later confirmed by GP).

So please be understanding if some of us occasionally get it wrong- we may not feel very confident.

But she did go through a period when she vomited after every meal, over a period of months, so clearly I did send her in then.

Message withdrawn

oh my goodness cory - your poor dd. And poor you as well. What alot to go through! You must hate the education system.

IME with DS the school have been very reasonable - DS is very prone to coughing himself to the point of sickness after a cold, it's something he's always done. He would have spent about a third of the school year off if I'd waited 48 hours after each episode to send him in! The school seemed to trust me that I'd know the difference between this and a real bug and never questioned me sending him in (as no doubt he trilled happily to anyone who would listen "I was sick this morning!")

But, to go back to the OP, yanbu to be fed up. It is just one of the responsibilities of being a parent that you have to keep sick kids at home.

oh and hulababy I'm sorry to hear you have pneumonia - how horrible! Hope you're better soon