Campus sanitation has loopholes
Sarah Cheung
Staff Writer
December 2017
Staff Writer
December 2017
As the pressure of classes looms over students, they are sometimes forced to choose between their health and their education.
Sometimes, students who are sick will still attend school in order to avoid missing class time that they believe is valuable. Although many state they have good intent when continuing to attend class, bringing their germs to school puts staff and their peers in danger of becoming ill.
Ryan Franaszek, a junior, said, “I come to school even when I'm sick because I don't want to fall behind in my advanced classes. Of course, if my sickness was so severe that I could barely stand, it would likely be best for me to stay home, for myself and the well-being of others.”
According to the Centers for Disease Control, there are eight core components to maximize students’ health and learning abilities. The components include health education, nutrition education and services, physical education, nursing services, a safe and healthy school environment, counseling and social services, staff wellness, and family and community education.
Carlmont has an onsite health aide, Samantha Gingher, whose role is to perform nursing assessments, interventions, case managements, treatments, health screenings, consultations, and referrals.
Gingher said, “If a student has a sore throat, some hot tea or warm water and salt can be given. If someone has a headache, I encourage them to rest and drink water.”
Students with more serious conditions cannot always find a remedy by visiting the health aid.
“The health office is mostly a triage center and cannot provide medications, even over-the-counter ones. If a student is presented with active cold or flu signs and symptoms, the push is going to be to get them to go home in order to protect the immunity of everyone around them,” Gingher said.
At Carlmont, students are permitted to have 18 excused absences in order to still receive credit for a course. This may influence students when they are deciding whether or not to still come to school sick.
Carlmont teacher Denise Steward said, “Ideally, it’s best to stay home, but a common cold is pretty standard. This does not necessarily make it right to come to school, but there are five common colds throughout the year, and if people take time away from school to recover from all five of these, then they are missing a lot of class time.”
According to the Sequoia Union High School District, all students must observe the immunization requirements that are enforced by California schools. The immunization requirements for grades kindergarten through twelfth include getting vaccines that prevent Polio, Diphtheria, Tetanus, Pertussis, Measles, Mumps, Rubella, Hepatitis B, and Varicella.
Regarding district spending on health supplies for classrooms, Steward said, “Our school is given money and the department has to decide how that money is best spent, and usually it is spent on curriculum rather than things like tissues. This is because the school has a very small budget and it must be spent on materials used to teach, which is what we’re here to do.”
However, the district does choose to buy economy-sized hand sanitizer bottles, which are available in all classrooms if teachers request one. Some teachers, like Steward, use their own money to purchase disinfectants such as bleach wipes to help prevent the spread of bacteria.
Another factor that may have an influence on sickness at school is the installation of electric hand dryers. Carlmont has roughly three times the number of hand dryers than the number of paper towel dispensers.
Grant Steunenberg, an administrative vice principal at Carlmont, said, “A main reason why electric hand dryers were installed is because some immature students use the paper towels to clog toilets and sinks. Hand dryers eliminate the amount of extra work that custodians have to do to clean up after this sort of behavior.”
Despite the practical benefits of having electric dryers, they are actually said to be less hygienic than traditional paper towels.
The European Tissue Symposium, an organization representing tissue paper manufacturers, has scientifically proven that jet-air dryers increase the amount of bacteria on the hands from between 42 to 200 percent, while paper towels can reduce bacteria by 77 percent. However, some say the solution to the debate about paper towels versus electric dryers may lie in actual good hand washing rather than methods of drying.
While districts should take precautions to combat the spread of illness, students are held accountable for monitoring their own health.
Steward said, “In high school, students’ health is not assessed to the degree that it is in elementary school, so the responsibility is on students to decide when they should stay home. Some students eventually discern that if they have a fever or something similar, they might not be very productive anyway, so they stay home.”
Sometimes, students who are sick will still attend school in order to avoid missing class time that they believe is valuable. Although many state they have good intent when continuing to attend class, bringing their germs to school puts staff and their peers in danger of becoming ill.
Ryan Franaszek, a junior, said, “I come to school even when I'm sick because I don't want to fall behind in my advanced classes. Of course, if my sickness was so severe that I could barely stand, it would likely be best for me to stay home, for myself and the well-being of others.”
According to the Centers for Disease Control, there are eight core components to maximize students’ health and learning abilities. The components include health education, nutrition education and services, physical education, nursing services, a safe and healthy school environment, counseling and social services, staff wellness, and family and community education.
Carlmont has an onsite health aide, Samantha Gingher, whose role is to perform nursing assessments, interventions, case managements, treatments, health screenings, consultations, and referrals.
Gingher said, “If a student has a sore throat, some hot tea or warm water and salt can be given. If someone has a headache, I encourage them to rest and drink water.”
Students with more serious conditions cannot always find a remedy by visiting the health aid.
“The health office is mostly a triage center and cannot provide medications, even over-the-counter ones. If a student is presented with active cold or flu signs and symptoms, the push is going to be to get them to go home in order to protect the immunity of everyone around them,” Gingher said.
At Carlmont, students are permitted to have 18 excused absences in order to still receive credit for a course. This may influence students when they are deciding whether or not to still come to school sick.
Carlmont teacher Denise Steward said, “Ideally, it’s best to stay home, but a common cold is pretty standard. This does not necessarily make it right to come to school, but there are five common colds throughout the year, and if people take time away from school to recover from all five of these, then they are missing a lot of class time.”
According to the Sequoia Union High School District, all students must observe the immunization requirements that are enforced by California schools. The immunization requirements for grades kindergarten through twelfth include getting vaccines that prevent Polio, Diphtheria, Tetanus, Pertussis, Measles, Mumps, Rubella, Hepatitis B, and Varicella.
Regarding district spending on health supplies for classrooms, Steward said, “Our school is given money and the department has to decide how that money is best spent, and usually it is spent on curriculum rather than things like tissues. This is because the school has a very small budget and it must be spent on materials used to teach, which is what we’re here to do.”
However, the district does choose to buy economy-sized hand sanitizer bottles, which are available in all classrooms if teachers request one. Some teachers, like Steward, use their own money to purchase disinfectants such as bleach wipes to help prevent the spread of bacteria.
Another factor that may have an influence on sickness at school is the installation of electric hand dryers. Carlmont has roughly three times the number of hand dryers than the number of paper towel dispensers.
Grant Steunenberg, an administrative vice principal at Carlmont, said, “A main reason why electric hand dryers were installed is because some immature students use the paper towels to clog toilets and sinks. Hand dryers eliminate the amount of extra work that custodians have to do to clean up after this sort of behavior.”
Despite the practical benefits of having electric dryers, they are actually said to be less hygienic than traditional paper towels.
The European Tissue Symposium, an organization representing tissue paper manufacturers, has scientifically proven that jet-air dryers increase the amount of bacteria on the hands from between 42 to 200 percent, while paper towels can reduce bacteria by 77 percent. However, some say the solution to the debate about paper towels versus electric dryers may lie in actual good hand washing rather than methods of drying.
While districts should take precautions to combat the spread of illness, students are held accountable for monitoring their own health.
Steward said, “In high school, students’ health is not assessed to the degree that it is in elementary school, so the responsibility is on students to decide when they should stay home. Some students eventually discern that if they have a fever or something similar, they might not be very productive anyway, so they stay home.”