As the lull of winter kicks in, sickness strikes again. With more and more students missing school due to various illnesses, make up work piles up.

“I only missed one day of school and I am literally swamped with make-up work,” David Staab (’18) said. “I missed two projects and a test.”

Staab is infected with mononucleosis or mono, which involves the enlargement of the spleen, and in Staab’s case “a terrible strep throat,” he said.

On Jan. 27, over ten percent of students in were marked absent. Now that the third quarter is beginning, it is vital for students to be healthy and in class.

Nurse Leslie Perry is noticing the difference as well.

“Normally I would send home maybe one or two [students] a day, but [recently] I’ve been sending home between four and six,” Perry said.

“I’ve lost my voice a lot, it comes and goes sometimes. My body has been aching. And I’ve had cold and hot flashes.” Eva Burr (’19) said, a victim of the flu. To prevent her symptoms from worsening she has been taking vitamin C and drinking lots of water. “It all started when on Friday, I was at a party with all my friends, a lot of us are sick now because we shared drinks,” Burr said.

With winter sports heading down the final stretch and playoffs drawing close, coaches are relying on their key players to stay healthy and attend school every day.

“I am going to miss the next two or three weeks of basketball,” Staab said. “I could be out for the rest of the [season.]”

“Three people were sick on the basketball team. I missed a game and two practices,” Brooke Overmier (’20) said.

“I missed three dance practices and it put me behind the other girls,” Lily Potter (’20) said.
Balancing schoolwork and sports is tough when completely healthy, adding an illness on top of that already menacing stack can make it nearly impossible to finish all the activities that need to be completed.

“I came in late today because I had lots of assignments due,” Burr said.

Students are not the only ones suffering, some teachers have also become victims. English department chair, Tracy Hanley, suffered from a respiratory bug.

“My students have either had the stomach bug or the respiratory thing. I think I got it from my students,” Hanley said.

English teacher Michelle Vance had flu like symptoms and was out for a week.

“I had a 104 degree fever. Everything hurt, my head, my joints, and my bones. I couldn’t stop coughing,” she said.

Preventing yourself from getting sick is hard to do, but there are small measures you can take to stop yourself from getting a major illness.

“Hand washing is really the best thing,” Perry said. “Soap and water is better than alcohol based hand sanitizer. Do not share water bottles [and], if you are sick, stay home.”

Vance said she put her ceiling fans on and sprayed disinfectant to get rid of the germs.
Common symptoms of an illness are coughing, sneezing, aches, and exhaustion.

“I had a sore throat, stuffy nose, the chills, fever, loss of appetite, and fatigue so I went to [my] doctor,” Potter said.

If you’re suffering from one or more of these you may want to consider staying home to prevent it from becoming worse.

“My sickness really took hold like a wildfire,” Staab said. “I should have stayed home and prevented it from becoming worse.”