As fall rolls in and joy is abundant with the massive weather changes and a break from the intolerable heat,everyone is so excited for fall and the celebrations that come along with it. Unfortunately, following the metamorphosis of seasons and all the excitement that follows in new times, comes new sicknesses. 

With COVID-19 being on a rise again in cases, Paschal High School is being plagued with COVID, passing from student to student and even contaminating the teachers. Not only is COVID spreading like wildfire, with a confirmed 10 cases this week, other fall time sickness are covering the school. Strep, mono, the seasonal cold, and virus bacteria are going head to head with COVID trying to contaminate as many students as possible.

With all of this sickness floating around Paschal, the number of students absent seems to increase everyday, as classes are becoming sparse with kids out for being sick.

Chemistry teacher Megan Pagoulatos says “It feels like I have 50 kids missing everyday, which makes it so complicated to keep up with everyone’s work. The classroom, also, isn’t nearly as fun.” While it’s much better for students to stay home while sick to insure no more spread, sometimes students cannot risk a week of absences, which is becoming a huge contributor in why COVID and other sickness are thriving at Paschal.

In order to get an absence excused if you are sick, one must submit a doctor’s note explaining their sickness and while this seems simple enough, some students do not have the proper resources to go to the doctor for a note.

Whether they are low on cash, have no guardian to take them, etc., it means no excused absence, which can encourage sick kids to come back, in order to save some absences. Along with this, even if the student is perfectly suited in getting a note excusing them, excused absences still count against students in the long run of attendance, making students return to school before they are fully recovered.

Students coming to school in order to preserve their attendance is a main factor in these illnesses drowning Paschal, but who wants to have to attend attendance recovery for the week they were sick?

Overall, Paschal needs to focus on the germs at hand that are making students in every class sniffle, cough, and shake with chills and with this, students need to be much more observant in their germs.