A day off from school for stomach pain, injury or illness is done by every student and they should be allowed to do so. Under Olentangy’s new attendance policy, health reasons no longer count as excused absences, even with a doctor’s note. This rule places attendance numbers above student health and ignores real situations that students cannot control.

Illness and injury happen without any caution. A student who feels sick or hurt cannot focus, learn or perform well in class. This policy requires students to attend school under these conditions, which can cause illness to spread and place extra stress on students and teachers. Schools should support students, not force them to sit in class while in pain.

The new attendance policy at Olentangy High School allows a student to miss only 10% of their school hours. Any absence going beyond the limit will be warned. If a student continues to miss more hours, they will have to go to court. This rule gives no exceptions for health reasons, even with a doctor’s note.

This new policy gives more importance to students’ attendance than their health which shouldn’t be the case. This policy will only discourage students and make them feel unheard, which causes students to hate the school environment even more. School is supposed to be a safe and supportive environment  for everyone and students should be able to take days off if necessary without the constant stress about whether they followed the policy or not. 

The expectation for students to take only 45 hours of school off for the whole school year is an unrealistic expectation that even adults can’t achieve. Instead of the prioritization of attendance OHS should set a realistic attendance policy that does not penalize students for absences they cannot control.