As schools ask help from parents as absences from illness mount, what about the schools helping parents? When a child is in school and becomes ill the building nurse should call parents to inform them. In some cases even allow the parents to decide if the child is sick enough to go home. With many children sent home from Strough School recently, for instance, wouldn’t it be better to get the illness out of the building before spreading it?

My eighth grader had a cough, sore throat and told the nurse he felt he was going to vomit but because his fever was on 99.7 degrees he was sent back to class. That means my son through no fault of his own could have infected numerous classmates.

If Superintendent Jeffrey Simons wants to limit and control opportunities where healthy students might be exposed to kids who have the flu then students who go to the nurse with one or more of these symptoms should be sent home.

— Mrs. Sharon Ackerman, 416 Henry St.