Students are dropping like flies as sickness runs rampant around campus. There have been a lot of students missing school because of this sickness or what some people call “whooping cough.”
Junior Danillo Fanti says that he has been sick since Christmas. “I woke up one day, and I’ve never been the same,” Fanti said.
Fanti explained the symptoms he was experiencing, saying he was congested and had a stuffy nose. Fanti said his sickness got so bad at one point that he had to get two inhalers for when he has trouble breathing.
This sickness began affecting students during Christmas break and still is affecting students to this day.
Everyone getting sick over the last three months has led to a ton of absences at Arcata High School. These absences have affected the school by causing it to lose income.
The Dean of Students, Juan-Antonio Santisteban, reported that from December through February the ADA, or average daily attendance, just keeps dropping.
At the end of December, the ADA was at 94%, at the end of January, the ADA had decreased an entire 5%, dropping to 89%. This is bad, but if you think it can’t get worse, the ADA at the end of February dropped another 3% to 86%.
“We are losing money in each loss of percentage,” Santistaban said.
Santisteban also implied that the reason that these students are getting sick is that they are getting the flu, fever, whooping cough, and sometimes just a common cold.
With all these students experiencing symptoms like the flu and whooping cough, it takes some of these students out of their education for 2 or even 3 full weeks.
