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Swine Flu Pandemic hits Marked Tree HighPosted Tuesday, September 8, 2009, at 8:23 PM
It's been a while since I've blogged. I have quite a few new readers, too! Well, no excuse for my absence; only lack of inspiration. Well, going to school today after the nice and long and much-needed Labor Day weekend I noticed the halls to be relatively empty. First period, we had a lot of people absent, but we're at the end of the hallway and we were outside so no known reasons why. I go to second period and half of the class is absent, the teacher included and some are barely able to stop sneezing and/or coughing. "What is happening?" I wondered. Then Mrs. Criswell comes to the door and says, "Anyone who has fever report to the nurse's office while she's here." With curious looks, we all begin feeling each other's heads and watching to see who leaves. Come to find out these people are possible Swine Flu cases.
At the end of the day the final statistic was 55 students absent and around 25 checked out. That's 80 students! Most were possible Swine Flu victims. There was talk of the school possibly having to close down. Later that rumor was proven to be less likely. Yes, it's still plausible, but highly unlikely. How big of an effect will Swine Flu be on our schools? Sitting in class I began thinking is that was the victims of yellow fever, an epidemic to devastate this region in the late 1800s- so much that Memphis had to produce mass-graves, felt? Is this what we will have to face soon? How can we protect ourselves? Is Germ-X enough? What is your opinion on the Swine Flu? How do you think schools should react? Should we act now, or wait and see if it lets up or not? I want to know your opinion so please comment. You can also e-mail me at dustinhood@ymail.com. Thanks for reading! Bright Blessings, Dustin Hood Comments Showing comments in chronological order [Show most recent comments first] |
Dustin is an 11th grade student at Marked Tree High School. He is a photographer and enjoys doing freelance articles and photos for the Tribune.
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Is this a pandemic...or is more of it panic? How many of the students that were missing were actually sick and how many stayed home so they wouldn't get sick? I've talked to just a couple of parents, and they're children stayed home Wednesday, not because they were sick, but because the parent didn't want them to get sick.
As you said...when you were told if you had a fever come and see the nurse..everyone started feeling each other's head to see if they had one. I'm not a doctor, but any time I had a fever, I knew it right away. This almost reminds me of an episode of "House" where they were on a plane and everyone started getting sick after one passanger got sick. It ended up the only one who was sick was the original one, and the others made themself belive they were sick, due to mass histeria. I'm not saying everyone at school who missed wasn't sick, but if you tell someone there's something going around and then tell them they feel warm..guess what...now that person is sick. How many of these students would be at school this week if the field trip to Little Rock and St. Louis was this weekend?
This will be nothing like the 1800s..and if you happen to catch the real Swine flu..like my niece and nephew in Alabama did...it's treated almost exactly like the real flu. Everyone needs to do more research into the myths and truths about this swine flu and go from there.
So...to everyone who's really sick..get well...to everyone who felt sick for a day or two, but feeling better now...that wasn't the swine flu, it was either a cold or allergies. Everyone try to keep everything in perspective and don't panic and if you do feel sick, go to the doctor and find out what's making you sick.
I partially agree with you. Go to school with these "sickly" kids one would assume that I too would get sick, and my friends that haven't yet been affected. Today was gameday and woah! what a difference! Everybody was miraculously healed. So, I can see that view point. I do think that some of the people are not ill with the Swine Flu, I think some, like you said, just see this as an excuse to get out of school. My mother, won't fall for that one though....Some kids have all the luck!
Thanks for your comment!
Dustin
You made alot of good points and I enjoy all of your blogs. I'm looking at this from the outside looking in...and also remembering when I was in school...and if I had a chance to miss..I'm sure I would have tried.
Sorry about writing a commment almost as long as your blog !!