You wake up feeling dizzy and sneezing. You can’t quite breathe and suddenly you’re coughing uncontrollably. If you were still in third grade you might get excited by this excuse to miss school—but you’re not. You attend an academically demanding school and have AP classes that you simply cannot miss. So instead of staying in bed to recover, you drag yourself to class.

This situation is not merely hypothetical. In fact, many students who are ill and even contagious regularly attend school to avoid falling behind. However, these students would get well faster and prevent other students and teachers from becoming ill if they stayed home for a few days.

Students are prone to getting sick, especially during the winter. Germ-infected surfaces are ever-present in high schools. Teenagers also often don’t get the sleep they need for their immune systems to run properly. Getting plenty of sleep, resting at home and drinking liquids are what most doctors recommend for the sick. Students who attend class while they are sick can’t focus as well and are instead straining their bodies by leaving the house.

When students go to school sick, they are not only harming themselves but are also putting staff, teachers and peers at risk of catching whatever infection or virus they have. It’s inconsiderate of students to expose others to sicknesses, and at school it happens all too often. If one student comes to school sick and gets a few others sick, a vicious cycle of illness occurs and wipes out many.

So, why do students ignore this common knowledge? Stress. Students worry about having to make up work they missed in class as well as keeping up with new material.

With that mentioned, some teachers should alter their make-up policies and be flexible for students with different needs. When it comes to students with illnesses, teachers should understand that students don’t pencil violent stomach flus or mono into their already hectic schedules. Teachers should not expect students to come back to school and have all of their work completed. Students have multiple classes they have to make up for, and if a student has a heavy workload after being ill, certain assignments should be excused while larger ones, as well as tests, should have extended due dates. Some teachers require students to e-mail them while students are sick and make up work within a day after returning. This request is unreasonable and unrealistic. Instead of adding on to student stress, teachers should be willing to negotiate the workload of ill students and even meet with them separately to ensure they get back on track more quickly.

All in all, students need to stop coming to school when they are sick. Teachers should also do their part to lower stress on students who are absent due to illnesses. They should loosen up their make-up policies and even encourage students to stay at home if they don’t feel well. Students who are sick need to realize their bodies crashed and need a break. If you’re sick and reading this at school now, stop. Go home, get in bed, take some medicine and stay far away from Gunn until you’re all better.