Winter is here and as people fall sick at exponential rates, this is a reminder to stay home if you’re sick. Stay. Home. Coming to school when you’re not feeling well is miserable, but it’s worse when you’re coughing and sneezing all over the place. Even the excuse, “Oh but then it’s so much schoolwork!” is flimsy. Yes, the workload when you’re absent is intense, but by being in school when sick, you’re putting other students at risk of falling sick too. Trying to be a responsible student is commendable, and being absent just because you feel like it isn’t right, going to school sick exposes others to your illness.

Not only that, but your health is more valuable than all the school work you miss. How are you expected to put your best foot forward when you aren’t healthy? Sickness has an insidious way of getting worse when you’re immune system is already weakened, so when you don’t take the time off for you to get better, you actually get worse.

We have an unhealthy environment, one where students are petrified of taking a day off because they feel like they will never catch up. In fact, just the mention of taking a mental-health day or sick day and not going to school is a horror story in and of itself.

Granted, teachers try their best to accommodate for absences, but students would rather risk their health than fall behind in school. Especially for AP classes, the missed workload is intense, but teachers would gladly email all missed work.

But that doesn’t seem to reassure students, and they still come into school coughing and sneezing. No one wants those germs, and the seemingly-impossible decision ultimately comes down to one thing: when you’re sick, stay home.