LETTERS: POLICY IGNORES REAL HEALTH CONCERNS

To the editor:

On Nov. 16 several doctors, a nurse, a lawyer, another parent and I told the Cape Girardeau School Board our concerns about the policy of letting students out of final exams as an enticement for 100 percent attendance.

A recent anonymous Speak Out called said orthodontists, like "other doctors," should provide after-school hours to accommodate school-age patients. I am an orthodontist, and I schedule after-school appointments. All orthodontists in Cape Girardeau do. That is not the issue.

The fact is that since this policy has been in effect I have seen something new in my practice: children with fevers, obviously ill, showing up for after-school appointments having already spent a full day at school. They are not staying home, and they are not going to the "other doctors." Why? Every time I've asked, I've gotten the same answer: "I don't want to take finals."

Besides being an orthodontist, I am a parent with boys in the ninth and 11th grades. I am very concerned, because this policy has the undeniable effect of consistently putting sick, potentially contagious students in proximity to healthy ones. The county health nurse explained to the board that the Cape Girardeau schools have a much higher infectious-disease rate than schools which don't have the same finals policy.

For what we spend in taxes, we should be able to encourage attendance without encouraging the spread of disease.

I hope that your anonymous callers, your editorial board and the school board will think again about what we get in exchange for perfect attendance. Public schools have an obligation to provide a healthy, safe educational environment for the children they serve. Right now, the unintended effect of a well-intended policy is that this is not happening. It's that simple. And it's that serious.

DAVID CROWE

Cape Girardeau