As illness has spread throughout Park post-Thanksgiving break, students have had trouble with their school work, feeling a range of cold-like symptoms to some contracting the flu. 

School nurse Suzanne Otos said not only students are heavily affected, but the staff as well.

“We have had five percent of the student community out, and then staff as well has been high,” Otos said. ”I would guess (in) our health office staff, there’s at least one to two people out per week.”

Junior Nate Benishek said sickness impacted his schoolwork, yet he believes sick students should not be exempt from their work.

“It affected my school work because I was too sick and lazy to do the work at home,” Benishek said. “Schoolwork should not get exempt because kids should be able to suck it up and do their work anyway like I did.”

Otos said that these absences can have an effect on student performance.

“I would imagine, due to the number of absences and having over five percent of the population out within a two week period, that there are definite issues with making up tests, exams, homework, etc,” Otos said.

Sophomore Max Rider said his sickness affected his schoolwork and hockey season, so it disappointed him that he had to miss so much.

“Not only did it affect my school work, it also affected a part of my hockey season because I missed our only away tournament (in) Duluth,” Rider said. “I was looking forward to this tournament for a few months, so it sucks to miss out”.

Benishek said he recommends sick students to acquire support and motivation through close friends and family to help finish their work. 

“If the students can get mental support from their friends and family, it will help them out,” Benishek said. “Another thing that drove me to do work was my parents making sure I stayed on top of my grades.”

Rider said that if it’s a minor sickness, students should be expected to finish their work. However, he said that if they miss many days, then they should be exempt from some assignments.

“If it’s a sickness between one and two days, you should be fine and have an easy catch up,” Rider said. “Yet, if you have it bad like some kids did, and you’re out for like a week, you should be able to slide with some assignments if you can’t get any done.”