We have all been sick in school, or know someone who has been. Especially in the November-March months, where germs are at an all time high. The Knoch Plague strikes every year, claiming lots and lots of victims. Why not talk to those people themselves? 

This year, I caught the Knoch Plague to the most extreme degree. One random Sunday, I started feeling extremely cold when visiting my grandparents. My great aunt had died the day prior so I would have felt bad leaving my grandma’s side, which caused me to ignore the sick feeling in my gut. 

When I got home, I took my temperature and the number 102.3 was staring back at me. Uh oh! I started going downhill quickly, curled up in the fetal position underneath my duvet, 2 throw blankets, a weighted blanket, and my favorite heated blanket. 

The next day, Monday, I felt exceptionally worse. With a fever of 104 and the worst sore throat you could imagine, I texted my mom. My parents were both at work, roughly an hour drive from our house. I was texting with my mom the whole morning about how awful I felt, and she decided to come home early. My stomach started feeling queasy, and the next thing I knew I was throwing up blood! Big oopsies, this was not good!!

My mom came home and we quickly left for the hospital. After getting triaged in the ER and a 2 hour wait, I finally got called back. I got tested for covid, the flu, and strep throat. I had taken medicine right before we left for the hospital, so my fever was gone.

After waiting another hour, the RN came into the room, and looked at me like I was a dying deer huddled under my moms jacket, shivering. He told me that all my tests were negative, and the blood was caused by a tear in my esophagus, so I had no further reason to stay.

I was prescribed some anti-nausea medicine and medicine to help the tear in my throat heal. My temperature was checked one more time, and since it was down due to the medicine I took a couple hours before, I went home on my merry way. I felt absolutely awful and knew my fever would be coming back, sure enough when I got home, my temperature was back up! Funny little fever spike.

I felt absolutely awful for a week straight. I finally came back to school Tuesday, March 25th. I am feeling much better now and luckily I didn’t miss too much work, but this was one of the worst illnesses I ever had. Worst part? I went to the hospital once, my usual doctor’s office twice, and none of them decided on which virus I had. Truly a mystery.  

Now, let’s get into some other students’ experiences with the sweeping plague, their symptoms, and how they dealt with it. 

Senior Angelo Natili missed his fair share of school, with roughly twenty absences. 

“The building feels unhealthy in some strange way,” he says.

Same Angelo, same. I too have felt the sick aura when walking from class to class. 

Natili said he experienced the standard symptoms, such as having a cold and headaches, and whatnot. But what students tend to stress about most when missing school, is the missed work they’re doomed to return too. 

“My makeup work is usually only hard in English and History due to the workload,” said Natili.

During the time I was out sick, we transitioned into the fourth nine weeks. That being said, a lot of my amazing teachers were kind enough to let me slide on some things. But in the past when I missed school, I always had a hard time getting caught up in Chemistry and Spanish.

Sophomore Garrett Mitchell had faced the plague as well this year, missing four days of school when he fell ill. He had the flu along with the standard symptoms such as a cough and fever. 

“I think it was from school,” Mitchell said. “I rarely got sick when I was cyber.”

School can be a filthy place. Especially after the pandemic, lots of students chose to stay cyber longer than mandated in order to protect themselves.

“If you get sick, stay home,” said Mitchell.

Exactly!! Even if you think you’re tough enough to go to school, really think about all the ways you could spread your illness. Walk yourself throughout the day, think about how many times you touch the railing going up the learning steps. Or how your friend sometimes asks you for a sip of your drink and you can’t help but say yes. Even how you cough into your hands instead of your elbow while sitting next to your immunocompromised lab partner. You don’t wanna be that person who starts the plague next time around! 

Junior Ciarra Osborne faced four days of absence as well when she got struck by the plague. 

“Making up APUSH work was extremely difficult because of how much we learn in a single day,” said Osborne.

I have definitely heard whispers about how students will refuse to leave school when sick because of their fear of missing too much in APUSH, so I’m not surprised by this.

“I think getting the plague is almost unavoidable, so just being proactive about sharing stuff could help stop spreading germs,” said Osborne.

This circles back to my earlier rant about how staying home can be so helpful. DON’T SHARE THINGS WHEN YOU’RE SICK. 

Each of these three people have little final remarks they think students can benefit from.

“Make sure everyone has their personal bubbles,” said Osborne. 

“If you get sick, stay home,” said Mitchell.

And my personal favorite, 

“Shout out Mr. Tristani and all the janitors,” said Natili.