When should illness cancel classes?
Contributing writer
Third-period bell is almost not heard over the sounds of students coughing.
Marion’s students seem to have turned into zombies in a matter of days.
Students have been hit hard by different strands of illness running rampant the past few weeks.
Schools all over — including schools in Oklahoma, Iowa, and Missouri and even at Centre here in Marion County — have been shutting down because of sicknesses.
Most luckily have reopened, but hundreds of bustling students shoved into schools makes rapid influx of illness common.
Elementary school students are not the only victims. Many high schoolers are proposing the same question: “If other schools are shutting down, why are we not?”
In Marion’s case, the school was more fortunate than people realized.
While having a consequential number of student absences — 38 on the worst day — Marion High did not lose enough teachers to demand shutting down, Principal Donald Raymer said.
According to Raymer, the school closes only out of necessity.
He noted that some students use the school as a safe haven, and he does not want to take that hospitality away.
But students wonder whether the school made the right choice in not closing.
It might not have been manageable to close long enough for a recovery period, but “they could have closed down for a day to clean,” senior Alyera Koehn said.
“I think the school needs one big, deep clean,” she said.
Students continue to show up, mostly in fear of missing too much work.
Seniors admit they would rather come to school sick than miss more classes.
“Homework is awful to make up,” senior Erin Regnier said.
But the situation can be forgiving.
“I feel like the school is pretty understanding about being gone,” senior Taryn Kraus said after missing a few days. “I was given enough time to make up for what I missed.”
However, senior Sam Loomis wishes the school would give more time and offer alternatives to sitting in classes.
He thinks it’s unfair not to let students recover before having to stress over schoolwork and extracurriculars piling up.
Still, others point out that students’ needs vary, and teachers and staff seem to do what they can to help.
As Regnier put it: “Everyone’s different.”