Parents STILL Sending Sick Kids to School

Updated:   Published

This is so frustrating. It's like we never experienced the pandemic. Parents still drop off sick kids (who pass the temp screening) with coughs, sore throats, headaches, sinus congestion, etc...   And of course, they're nearly impossible to reach. 

I really thought that they'd 'get it' at this point.. but apparently not. 

End Soapbox Rant

I do feel compassion for the parents but help us out.  I just sent a student home with sore throat and stomach pain.  Mom argued that his throat is sore because he forgot his daily Zyrtec and stomach hurts because he did not eat enough with his ADD meds.   If you know that they will have a sore throat without Zyrtec make sure they take it.   I might have been able to have him eat something and see if the stomach ache went away but with both symptoms he had to go home.  

BTW we are not seeing a lot of fever with our positive cases here.

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Specializes in School Nursing, Pediatrics.
On 11/10/2020 at 10:53 AM, k1p1ssk said:

Whoa. I'm in the Western region and thankfully my county's numbers are wicked low and families seem to be taking it seriously. I fear that this is due to good weather and as we see the holidays approaching and the temp dropping, we're going to be in for it... It just means a lot of follow up phone calls home when they call LD in sick without a mention of symptoms... 

I LOVE that you said WICKED!!  LOL

I'm in central MA, and we were supposed to open up for the highest need students Nov. 16, that is now pushed back until Jan. 25, mainly due to the fact HVAC is not complete (true, but also the district is no where near ready) but the numbers in MA are going way up, and they changed how they do it so towns that were in the "red" zone are now "yellow", which is totally ridiculous!! DESE wants all kids in school, but they don't even know what goes on in a school! It is giving people a false sense of security, so people are sending in their sick kids, because they are being told it is safe, when in fact this is getting worse than before!!

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Specializes in kids.
2 hours ago, RN-to- BSN said:

Hi, this might be unpopular opinion, but try and look at this from the parent perspective. The kid has to go to school so the parent can work. Since the main check is fever, kids with cough, runny nose but no fever is OK to send according to the parent.

Were kids sick before COVID? Yes!

Will they be sick with something OTHER than COVID? Yes!

A little compassion goes a long way.

It sure does...but we, in the schools, are doing our level best to stay here. We have guidelines set up by people way higher up the food chain than us. We don't get to pick and choose which public health guideline we follow. We are charged with keeping our schools as safe as they can be.

Trust me , we are not having any fun or getting any satisfaction sending or keeping kids home. Do we know that many will NOT be Covid? Nope! Do you want your kids exposed to this if we are not doing due diligence? Maybe your kids would get sick be fine and return. But then again, maybe not. We just don't know. So yes, a little compassion DOES go a long way.

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Specializes in School Nursing.
3 hours ago, RN-to- BSN said:

Hi, this might be unpopular opinion, but try and look at this from the parent perspective. The kid has to go to school so the parent can work. Since the main check is fever, kids with cough, runny nose but no fever is OK to send according to the parent.

Were kids sick before COVID? Yes!

Will they be sick with something OTHER than COVID? Yes!

A little compassion goes a long way.

I am a parent so I see it from both perspectives. Sick kids belong at home. I understand parents have to work, but school isn't there for free childcare, and it's never been allowed to send kids with communicable diseases to school. Since we can't differentiate between allergies and Covid-19, they have to stay home. 

I had a parent positive for Covid send her daughter to school. Parent lied and said daughter was living with the aunt and hadn't been exposed. Three days after F2F daughter was diagnosed with Covid AND Flu. According to daughter, she never stayed with her aunt, that her mom thought if she stayed in her own bedroom daughter wouldn't catch it. 

Compassion is a two way street. 

A little selflessness goes a long way too. 

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Specializes in ICU/community health/school nursing.
8 hours ago, RN-to- BSN said:

Hi, this might be unpopular opinion, but try and look at this from the parent perspective. The kid has to go to school so the parent can work. Since the main check is fever, kids with cough, runny nose but no fever is OK to send according to the parent.

Were kids sick before COVID? Yes!

Will they be sick with something OTHER than COVID? Yes!

A little compassion goes a long way.

As a gentle reminder, this is our safe space to vent. None of us doubt that it's sometimes easier for the parent to get called away from work to pick up a sick child than it is to call in. None of us doubt that parents are exceptionally weary of getting the "out of abundance of caution" letters.

In our district the parents are asked to attest that there are no new symptoms and some of them quit doing so in September. I have completely lost my compassion for those people.

"Will they be sick with something other than COVID?" - I do not have a license to diagnose. So yes, this year, that goes out with relative zero tolerance.

If you send your kid to our district this year you are agreeing that it's possible I'll send them home for symptoms, and you will then be required to quarantine for 10 days or present an alternative diagnosis. And you're agreeing that you hold us harmless if your kid gets sick because another parent, accidentally or on purpose, sends a sick kid to school.

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Specializes in ICU/community health/school nursing.
7 hours ago, Queen of Icepacks said:

  

BTW we are not seeing a lot of fever with our positive cases here.

Agreed - that seems to be happening on the weekend (as in the parent calls in Monday that the student popped a fever over the weekend, with or without other sx).

Predominant driver of going home with symptoms here in my corner of the NTX is barky cough (not like my asthma hack) and profusely runny nose.

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Specializes in school nurse.
22 hours ago, scuba nurse said:

I LOVE that you said WICKED!!  LOL

 DESE wants all kids in school, but they don't even know what goes on in a school! It is giving people a false sense of security, so people are sending in their sick kids, because they are being told it is safe, when in fact this is getting worse than before!!

Ditto on the "wicked"; in fact I'll see it and raise you a "wicked pissah".

DESE, I'm willing to bet, is mostly working remotely. Because, you know, it's safer to not be out there commuting on the trains and working in an office setting.

Just sayin'...

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Our City has a very nice Student symptom decision tree that was developed by one of the local Universities.  They have a version that is easy to follow for non medical people which we have published in our School COVID handbook.  I have printed a stack of copies which I give to the parent when a student is picked up to go home with a symptom or symptoms.  I always circle where we are at on the tree and it clearly shows the next steps that need to be taken.    It has helped that I can show why we have made this decision to send the student home.  I know that it is the same information that we would give the parents verbally but somehow seeing it spelled out of paper seems to stop the push back.   

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I'm actually in the mood to send kids home today for headaches and questionable sore throats.  But only my frequent fliers are visiting today.

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Specializes in Med-surg, school nursing..

I've had a total of 4 now show up while STILL IN QUARANTINE. Then the parents try to argue with me when I show them the official paperwork and let them know that I cannot allow their child in school until the date listed on the paper. But it's my fault. 

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11 minutes ago, OyWithThePoodles said:

I've had a total of 4 now show up while STILL IN QUARANTINE. Then the parents try to argue with me when I show them the official paperwork and let them know that I cannot allow their child in school until the date listed on the paper. But it's my fault. 

I've had parents try to argue our city travel quarantine with me.  What do you want me to do?  Call up the mayor?  This isn't my choice.  I'm enforcing a policy.

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Specializes in Med-surg, school nursing..
1 minute ago, BrisketRN said:

I've had parents try to argue our city travel quarantine with me.  What do you want me to do?  Call up the mayor?  This isn't my choice.  I'm enforcing a policy.

And it's always the one's who play sports. Always. 

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