High School Germs

My son thought it was hysterical when I shrieked and dropped the pen in his high schools attendance office when I signed him out sick yesterday. “Ugh”, I heard myself yell out. “The person who signed out last had pink eye!” I continued to sign my name and immediately went to scrub my hands. The nice women there explained that the mother of the sick child signed her out.

It didn’t matter to me who signed the girl out, the fact is the germs are all over and simple precautions could have been taken to change pens or at least be aware of the germs people are carrying. I am not a germ “freak” but I do know that they are coming from somewhere and I don’t feel like getting them.

What if that woman is going to visit a friend or family member in the hospital? Would she know enough to wash before touching her friend or anything in the sick friends room? Have we become so casual with germs that it’s ok to use a shared pen with possible germs lingering from pink eye?

These infections are coming from somewhere and finding their way into our hospitals to attack our most vulnerable citizens. If we, the public don’t declare war on these germs, they will win.