As a parent I don't feel that our schools have the right to force a sick child into school or force that child out of school.Today's kids catch everything from each other so why aren't schools better prepared for common illnesses? Like the flu or strep or pink-eye? Why are we being harrassed for being good parents?
201903
Schools are responsible for so much, and the liability is huge.  Of course parents are smart to keep their kids home if they know they're sick.  Why would you send your child to school sick?  They'd be miserable.  If you saw how rapidly things spread in a classroom, on a bus, or in any public setting like that, you might wish for the days of quarantines.  Too bad schools have to educate parents on how to act in what should be a clear situation.
15485
Treat your child with a decent over the counter medication. \n\nIf more action is needed for this really rather mild concern, then contact the school's bosses (district HQ or school board, for example) and/or the county public health department.\n\nIf you are still unsatisfied, try a local news station or newspaper. \n\nI am unsure how big of a response you can expect from this however, so you may need to modify your expectations.
36312
I hadn't heard about this.  If they indeed tried to hide the fact from the public, it's a horrid disservice to those with allergies.  My kids are allergic to everything and it's so hard.  People just don't understand the severity of it all until you live with it.  Too many "well-meaning" people have made my kids sick.  When they were little, I finally made them pins that read, "DO NOT FEED ME without talking to Mom!"  Sometimes even that didn't work! Ughhhh!
285017
I think it is sad that public schools are teaching kids what to do to prevent being pregnant istead of teaching kids wht NOT to do to be in a relationship that involves sex whilst at school.\n\nIf schools would spend more time and money into teaching kids how to become independent financially and self responsibility, the new generations would be a better bunch of people.\n\nKids were taught how they can rot the system by becoming irresponsible parents - making kids and then the welfare take over the responsibility to supporting them financially!  What would these kids learn?  That it is OK to lay on their backs or to push girls down and produce like rabbits!  Then draw fortnightly paychecks to support their irresponsible and ignorant lifestyles!\n\n@@@@@@@@@@@@@
18652
There is NOTHING more important. I have heard that if a baby is given proper nutrition and kept at the proper temperature, but is deprived of human contact in all forms, the baby will become ill and likely die.  Human contact is a need that is primary to all of us.  I have worked in institutions with children who had been abused in horrible ways by their parent.  Yet, when the parent would come for a visit, the child would run to them.  If I could tell you the types of torture these children had endured from these parents (which I can't) you would be amazed that the child would run to them instead of away from them.  There is something about the bond between a child and a parent that is supernatural.  Parents are the key factor for most children's success in education.  Take 2 children of similar intelligence and send them to school.  The one with parents who take an interest in the child's education will far out perform the child with parents who don't pay attention.  Some might argue that it is simply because the interested parents are reviewing educational material with the child, but this is only part of the answer.  If the second child were to have tutors for the equal amount of time, the results would still favor the child with involved parents.  I have seen many times that children who sware they will never be like their parents grow up to be exactly like them.  In particular I had a childhood friend whose father was alcoholic.  At times it would be so bad that the boy and his mother would show up at our doorstep in the middle of the night.  We spent a lot of time together in a treehouse talking about life.  He stuttered and some other kids made fun of him, but I never did.  He swore he would never be like his father.  The boy grew up to follow in his father's footsteps.  The last time I saw him he was a miserable alcoholic.  Could he have chosen a different route?  I believe he could, but he didn't, and along with being sad, I think it is amazing.  Parents are our first and most important role models.  There must be something about us that makes us believe that we can be just like them.  We may THINK and HOPE we can be different, but we KNOW we can be the same.  How many doctors or lawyers do you know who came from families that had a parent as a doctor or lawyer.  Look at hollywood, lots of actors come from actor families.  Do we HAVE to become our parents?  NO! but it is amazing that it is such a struggle not to.
261441
Health for both of my kids.\n\nMy daughter has an agonizing, painful disease and has had 3 surgeries.  There is no cure...she's 17\n\nMy son is 15 with an undiagnosed abdominal pain and has had 2 surgeries (now they think it's an abnormality in his heart)  \n\nBoth of my kids just want to be able to go to school and be healthy enough to enjoy their teen years.\n\nI'd give anything for them to be healthy....
131747
I am in Michigan, and in our small town they do not do that here. It's funny that you asked this, because my daughter is going to middle school next year and I had a meeting with a couple of teachers about the sex ed program at the middle school. One of the teachers was from the middle school and I asked about the sex ed. I wanted to know if they address abstinence or birth control. In my home we stress abstinence, for the biggest reason because of our Christianity, but the next biggest reason, for their health and safety. I think it is every parents duty to teach their children before the school does so that the parents values are instilled first. I agree schools need to respect what parents teach in their homes. If a school is teaching about birth control and it is in opposition to what a parent is teaching then the child should not be part of that one part in teaching kids about unwanted pregnancies and diseases prevention.
645936
Some illnesses/medical disorders can ONLY be cured by surgery or a medical intervention. It's not a matter of crossing your fingers and hoping that your child doesn't die. If you are truly religious you would realize that God has given people the ability and intelligence to be physicians for a reason. I think anyone that denies their child medical care for 'religious reasons' should be charged with neglect and attempted murder. There have been way too many cases of children dying from people that have distorted religious beliefs.
434370
You really need to check with your school on that question.  \n\nIf it is for personal reasons, try to get documentation.  For example, if you were sick I would try to get a doctor's note to explain the circumstances. \n\nHope this helps!
144688
Although we live in the free country ,I totally support government intervene if too much sex or violence on TV.As parents,we can not watch or follow our kids 24 hours a day ,except throw the TV away.They have so many chances to learn bad things from those program ,movie and show.
36027
I'm Canadian, it's only a matter of time till the virus is found here and it mutates into our worst fears.\n\nI have drilled my kids to wash their hands often. I know they should be doing that anyway, but kids are kids. Now I stess it so by the time the flu hit, hopefully it has become habit.\nI know this is no sure fire solution, but every bit helps.
306637
Sign me up for your team - I agree with you completely.  I'm a former teacher.\n\nThe sad thing is that it wasn't always like this.  Our educational system used to be the best in the world.  Somewhere along the way, we lost our focus.  I don't think it's a lost cause, but we need to act NOW to save what's left.\n\nTeachers can't discipline children who misbehave without the risk of retribution from the parents.  When I was a child, if I was disciplined in school it was a small matter compared to what I faced when I got home.\n\nMany teachers have gotten to the point that they just want to coast to retirement.  They're vested in their retirement plans, and don't want to change careers even though they've lost the passion that put them in that job in the first place so many years ago.  Many new teachers are there because the college degree is relatively easy to get, they get summers off, and they get to coach a sport.  Now, I'm not saying ALL teachers are like this, but everybody must admit there are some out there, and they're bringing the system down.\n\nMany parents use school as a daycare center.  They expect teachers to teach their children how to behave.  They won't help their kids with homework because it's the teachers' responsibility to make sure the kids understand it.  \n\nFew parents attend parent-teacher conferences.  The ones that do are generally the parents of children that aren't having problems.  The kids see all of this and adopt the philosophy that, "If Mom and Dad and the teachers don't care, why should I?"\n\nSchools have become more focused on teaching vocational and technical classes, and less on the basics.  As an instructor of some college-level medical courses, I was once asked by a panel of high school administrators what courses they should offer to their students to better prepare them for a college program in healthcare.  "Should we offer Medical Terminology? Anatomy & Physiology?"\n\nMy answer was, "Make them take 4 years of math, 4 years of English, and 4 years of science.  If they haven't done that, they aren't ready for college."\n\nIf you have a plan to fix the system, count me in!  Let's start a movement in the right direction!\n\nP.S. - Did you notice that the only people who disagreed with you on this wrote in very poor form, with no capitalization or punctuation, or misspellings and generally poor grammar?  I found that interesting.
160183
Schools can ban just about anything these days under the assertion that it interrupts the orderly functioning of the school in meeting its goal (education).  When challenged, often courts won't even hear the cases and when they do, they generally will side with the schools.\n\nIn this instance, they're treating a symptom of course (isn't that almost always the case) because the kids are going to get into each others' faces anyway - perhaps with a weapon next time.\n\nI'd like to see them address the real issue, but this particular one may be over the heads of local schools anyway.
13417
the only problem with that is students don't have rights in schools because the school and its staff is considered "parents" of the students while they are there.\n\nthis poses a problem then because if you go on strike, you get in trouble for passive resistance and insubordination, both of which are considered "serious offenses" and will probably lead to expulsion.\n\nsometimes it works; like if you think that they are asking too much for lunch or something like that, but most of the time it doesn't.  (unfortunately)\n\nsometimes, i wish it did though.  oh..and most of the parents in my area couldn't care less if their child went on strike or not...unless they got expelled.
85655
No, I do not believe they are safe, I believe that we are brainwashed to believe they are safe. Also, it is not true that your child cannot go to school without having them. All states allow some kind of exemption, either a religious, a medical, or a philosphical exemption. I live in CA, and we have all three. I will homeschool, but if I did decide to put them in school, I would use the philosophical exemption. All you do is obtain a form, you can find this through gval.com, and state why you feel it is not safe to immunize your child. If people would do some research, they would find out that when immunizations were first introduced, the diseases they were fighting had already been in a rapid decline prior to their introduction.  Here's a few quotes for you...\n\n "Actually, it's the vaccinated children who spread disease. Many of the disease outbreaks that we are warned about today, are caused by, and occur in, recently vaccinated children."\n "Recently vaccinated children do carry the disease germ and are able to spread it to other children. Many so-called epidemics are initiated and spread in this manner, even though the unvaccinated are blamed."\n "Many children (and adults) receive vaccines and shortly thereafter have a serious reaction, often requiring emergency hospitalization. Such reactions include seizures, autism, immunological damage, neurological damage, sudden infant death syndrome, and/or a number of other rare and elaborately named "new" diseases. Often, the doctor, nurse, or hospital personnel will try to convince you that the reaction is "normal" and nothing to worry about. Other times they will claim your child contracted a simple virus, or is screaming uncontrollably (nonstop for hours!) because she didn't like the needle prick. These are all lies. Doctors NEVER admit a correlation between vaccines and serious reactions."\n  These are just some of the facts about immunizations that most people don't know. I was fortunate enough to have a dr. that says he too believes that they are unsafe, which is rare! These quotes don't even touch on the autism link. Do your research. Don't let anyone bully you into doing something you are concerned about doing. My feeling is this. I compare giving my child a shot to allowing someone to to play Russian Roulette with him. He could receive 100 vaccines and not have a single reaction, but it only takes one that affects him the wrong way to kill him. Who out there would sit with their child in their lap, allow someone to point a gun at their child and shoot, hoping they wouldn't get the one bullet? Not too many, I would hope. Another thought; the only new cases of polio happen in those who have received the immunization. Just be informed. I don't fault anyone for giving their child shots if they have researched it, unbiased, and still feel it's the right thing to do. I do have a problem with people who just take dr.'s word for it that it's safe. How many times in your lifetime has a report come along that said they've reversed what they had been telling us all along? Something to keep in mind if you still decide to immunize. See if the dr. will at least break them up into smaller quantities. One of the theories out there is that because they're giving so many vaccines in a single dose, it overloads the system. Your child could have had a slight infection, causing his immune system to be working on that, received this megadose of live viruses, and it was too much, causing a reaction. Also, ask for thimerosol-free immunizations, and if they don't have any, go somewhere else.\n\n\nFor Donna. You wanted to know where I got my information. Here's a few more links if the first three weren't good enough, if you even bothered to look there. These links are dealing with the issue of mercury, or thimerosol being in immunizations. These are articles that our CDC knows about
215572
I think you need to deal with the reasons for wanting a day off school.  It doesn't really bode well for your future if you fake being ill to take a day off school.  You have holidays its not like you're there 365 days a year is it?  Some people really value their education and will go to school despite being ill so there is no reason to 'need' a day of unless you are genuinely ill or something really bad has happened.
38601
I don't think we're holding our kids to high enough standards. I think kids are getting passed when they really don't deserve it. Just for example, look at some of the spelling and grammar on Yahoo Answers. How did some of these people pass in school?