Ira Zunin has turned today’s column over to his son Brandon Zunin. Brandon, a junior at Punahou School, is opinions editor of Punahou’s student-generated newspaper, Ka Punahou, and editor of Ka Wai Ola student magazine.

High school students can easily spend six to 12 hours on campus in a given day. Most of us use the vast majority of time learning and socializing with peers and teachers, or teammates and coaches after the academic day.

Throughout the day, students and teachers are in close quarters. As we move from class to class, we introduce ourselves to an entirely new group of 20 or 30 people and sit near them for upward of an hour. We share pencils, touch doorknobs, pass around papers and all too often breathe in the sneeze of the kid sitting in the next seat. High school is an extremely high-risk environment when it comes to contagion.

We all know how to minimize our risk in the day-to-day onslaught of viruses and bacteria; or at least we should, considering the plethora of commercials and propaganda that surrounds us. On Punahou’s campus, for example, there are dozens of antibacterial hand rub stations with signs recommending frequent use. On TV and in nearly every drugstore, there are ads suggesting annual flu shots and all manner of pamphlets with advice on how to stay healthy during flu season. Despite all this, I often see my peers coughing into the hand they will soon use to open a door, or wipe their nose before a quick handshake in a hallway.

In a society where we worry so much about missing work and school, and so passionately want to avoid dampening our productivity, sick people end up coming to work and school when they really should stay home. Too often people who know they are ill and probably contagious pull themselves together and show up anyway, bringing their secretions with them.

Going to work or school when you might be contagious is selfish and irresponsible, especially when you then complain to everyone next time you get sick. I myself am a culprit of this asininity.

It is easier said than done, but sick students should refrain from attending classes and athletic meetings. Schools, parents and students themselves are all to blame for the vast numbers of sick students on campuses every day. Not only do schools need to more avidly enforce the policy that students, when ill, should stay home, but students and parents have an obligation to change their habits as well.

Parents who expect a perfect attendance record from their kids and never accept "I think I might be too sick to go to school": Stop.

And students: We all know how much you can miss by being absent just one day, and we all have, to varying degrees, fear of getting behind. Let’s work with schools to further mitigate fear associated with missing a day or two of school, make it OK to take a day out when you are sick for not only your own sake, but to benefit your teachers and classmates as well.

It is the school’s responsibility to help students feel comfortable missing school when necessary, and to support them in making up work in a minimal-stress way when they return.

In schools and workplaces two things should happen to maintain maximal health and productivity. Better hygiene habits must be more widely adopted by students and workers; things like coughing into your elbow instead of your hand and actually washing your hands with some frequency can really go a long way. Second, schools and workplaces should further cultivate an environment where people feel comfortable recovering at home and by doing so keep more people healthy and, at the end of the day, more people in class and at work.

———

Reach Brandon Zunin at bzunin15@punahou.edu.