The 2022-2023 school year is the first school year in a post pandemic world where masks are absent from the classrooms. But with that, the trade off is that the students are also absent. The biggest question that students around campus are asking is why am I being penalized for a cold?

There is a large frustration from students when their classmates arrive sick, but then when they stay home the students are in trouble. Journalism staffer Lucy Miller ‘25, wrote an article in October about the problem of absences and sick time. “As more students this year are called out for “excessive absences” and are threatened with Saturday school, administration only increases their threats” (Miller ‘25).

While students are sick, they are already at home feeling miserable. But then, when they are healthy again and back to school they are miserable in a different way. The workload is piled on them without enough ample time to get it all done. Senior Ella Bloom has had a few colds this year. Thankfully instead of going to school and risking her classmates getting sick she stays home. But unfortunately, that has come with a price. “All days considered I was sick, in total, for over a month of the school year so far. On the days that I felt sick I feared missing school, because of the amount of assignments I was sure to miss, even from one day. I think this is why me and so many other students choose to come to school ill: it’s better to suffer through the school day with a cold than suffer through all the makeup work and plummeting grades the following week.”

Instead of posing sick students with a punishment for taking a break, there should be a compromise.

When a student’s parent reports them absent through the online form, there should be an option of a sick day. At the beginning of each school year, a student gets a certain amount of sick days, just like how employees do in the real world. This would be a win-win-win for students, teachers, and admin. Teachers would be notified ahead of time with a student being sick and how long they will be absent for. While the student would get the lesson straight to their bedside disposable.

The amount of sick students that Cathedral has had this year raises the question, Did the pandemic weaken our immune systems?

After the pandemic with the lack of masks, I find myself catching a cold faster and for a longer amount of time. This could be because I don’t have the barrier of a mask to my immune system anymore. But, it also could be due to that during the pandemic I was inside more, around outside germs less, and my face was bundled up from germs.

Cathedral senior Arabella Cassidy also noticed that her immune system was catching colds faster this year. “I’ve always had a good immune system. I rarely ever get sick, until this year. I’ve missed so many school days due to sickness and I don’t know why. I feel as if I’m sick every other week with the same thing. It has made it ten times more difficult for me to stay caught up. Especially with it being the second semester of senior year it makes it very difficult to maintain grades.”

When a student wakes up in the morning with a scratch in their throat, they have to ask themselves a question: Do I put my classmates at risk, or my grades? There should be no penalty for giving our bodies rest, so why are students being threatened with spending their Saturday sitting in a classroom. Is sick time a crime?