Sickies should stay home, not worth the risk

To the editor:

I understand that academic pressures are at an all time high at this point in the year, but paranoia about the H1N1 is also growing and students are trying their best to stay healthy during cold and flu season.

Sitting in class this morning, I found myself about three seats away from an extremely ill student who was coughing violently and frequently for the duration of a two-hour lecture. Later that afternoon, a different student, who looked closer to green than tan, sat in another one of my classes, grumbling about how ill they felt when the professor called on them. Time and time again, taking the Richmond bus packed with students, I have people cough on me, I see people wipe their noses and then hold the bus pole and, worst of all, just sneeze right into the air with no regard about where their snot is flying.

Most of us have been that sick student, pushing their limits. I know I sure have. You have a test or exam coming up, you don’t want to miss class, so you sit sniffling and sneezing trying to get down a few notes through a cough-syrupy haze. I get it, I really do, but at this point in time when so many people are on the edge of their seats waiting to find out when the H1N1 vaccine will be available for the general public, you need to just stay in bed and get well. As much as I want to be sympathetic to what sick students are going through, I have to restrain myself from telling off extremely sick people I see around campus. They are not only compromising their own safety by overexerting themselves, but they are also putting the rest of us at risk. For the good of public mental and physical health I beg you, ill students, to stay at home.

—Alanna Mager

English IV