Reaching New Heights for Safety
By Autumn Garrett
Taking steps to keep others safe, the school sees more students and staff start to stay home as we reach closer to the heights of Flu season. Everyone is trying to keep each other safe by staying away.
But as these absences start to pile up, the attendance policy is coming up from what seems like the grave. Covid-19 has changed so much this school year that it can be easy to forget about some of the policies and basic precautions of school from previous years. Easy to forget the normal when the entire school has adapted to the strange during the new semester. Some are still adapting to the changes as some students catch up during distancing learning weeks |
Some are still adapting to the changes as some students catch up during distancing learning weeks. “Remote learning has been a challenge. Some students haven’t been as engaged as they should be, not taking this opportunity seriously,” said Assistant Principal Dr. Keith Adams. With more absences comes the school reminder that students that the attendance policy is still in place. However, it can also be seen that there - like the rest of the school this year - have been changes concerning grace this year. It’s worrying when some students are becoming in danger with so many absences being marked down for this semester. But as students were recommended to stay home, the administrators and the school have taken this into consideration in terms of absences. |
Students have been recommended to, ¨make sure to call in if they are feeling unwell, they will talk to a nurse about any symptoms they might have from the Covid symptom list,¨ said Dr. Adams.
These students who are sick are expected to be tested for COVID if they have any worry that they have the virus, and will then proceed to be marked down under the appropriate tag for their absence.
These students who are sick are expected to be tested for COVID if they have any worry that they have the virus, and will then proceed to be marked down under the appropriate tag for their absence.
The admin understand the danger of coming to school sick and wishes to keep everyone safe. As so, the school has made it clear that anyone who is sent or stayed home due to possible covid-19 cases will be counted as quarantined for the time they are absent as long as they have medical notes proving so.
Administrators say that being marked down as “quarantined” is said to not count against a student’s attendance record. Inserting the Q code will assure that the student will not be at risk of attendance failure as they stay home and keep everyone else at school more safe. If students do happen to find themselves sick at school, on the off chance that this happens, they are advised to go straight to the nurses office. |
If students do happen to find themselves sick at school, on the off chance that this happens, they are advised to go straight to the nurses office.
Nurse, Emily Nelson, from there said, “to walk you through the steps: we first have to check for a temperature, if it is 100 degrees or more then the student is required to stay 10 days at home. During a checkup, we look for at least 2 out of the 6 symptoms.
¨From there, we escort the student to a precautionary room where we always have eyes on the student,¨ after these steps the nurses are expected to contact a parent or guardian and the student will be expected to stay at home for 10 days or return to school with a test stating they have tested negative for COVID.
However, administrators remind that they do have the right to mark the students as absent if they find that the students are not finishing the work assigned during the weeks they are quarantined.
As we reach closer to the end of the semester, students and staff at William Chrisman have gone through so many changes to keep everyone safe. The modifications in the attendance policy have just been another change to help students and staff relax and feel more safe during these times.
As students are prompted to, “stay home if you do not feel well,” but Nelson also makes the point of saying that when it comes to absences and attendance, it is also simply, “being aware of the difference between the student feeling more sick than just not wanting to come to school.¨
Nurse, Emily Nelson, from there said, “to walk you through the steps: we first have to check for a temperature, if it is 100 degrees or more then the student is required to stay 10 days at home. During a checkup, we look for at least 2 out of the 6 symptoms.
¨From there, we escort the student to a precautionary room where we always have eyes on the student,¨ after these steps the nurses are expected to contact a parent or guardian and the student will be expected to stay at home for 10 days or return to school with a test stating they have tested negative for COVID.
However, administrators remind that they do have the right to mark the students as absent if they find that the students are not finishing the work assigned during the weeks they are quarantined.
As we reach closer to the end of the semester, students and staff at William Chrisman have gone through so many changes to keep everyone safe. The modifications in the attendance policy have just been another change to help students and staff relax and feel more safe during these times.
As students are prompted to, “stay home if you do not feel well,” but Nelson also makes the point of saying that when it comes to absences and attendance, it is also simply, “being aware of the difference between the student feeling more sick than just not wanting to come to school.¨