Winter is a time of year that can be defined as the Òblue season.Ó The body is weakened by the cold. Many people become ill more easily. This affects students especially, causing them to miss school and catch up later.
At Marian, according to Mrs. Doris Kelly, school secretary, the primary time for absences due to illness, this school year, has been late January early February, with most absences occuring during the third week of January. On Jan. 21 of this year 113 pe ople were absent, 51 of them were ill.
The main cause of illness, said Mrs. Kelly, has been upset stomach. Usually, absences only last the duration of one day, but there always exceptions to this standard.
Each Wednesday, the state health department calls each school in the city to see how many students are absent due to illness that day. In this way, records can be kept and trends can be monitered. This is how the peak of the flu season is determined. At t imes, illness has affected schools so greatly that classes were canceled.
Return to Feature Index Page