School, student at odds over H1N1 absences

KAYSVILLE -- A Mountain High School student who was hit by the H1N1 virus returned to school Monday to find out she had no schedule for classes.

Lacey Nance, of Layton, said she returned to the alternative school in Kaysville on the first day of the new eight-week term to find she was dropped from the program.

"I went in to get a class schedule, and they wouldn't give me one," said the 17-year-old senior. "They didn't tell me whether I'm supposed to go to school (today) -- nothing."

Lacey's legal guardian, Charity Green, said Lacey went to the emergency room Oct. 23 with a high fever and seizures and was diagnosed with swine flu.

Green said she called the school Oct. 26 to report the absence and talked to Mountain High School officials several days during that week to update them on Lacey's condition.

Green said they took the emergency room discharge papers to the school when Lacey returned Monday.

"We were told that Lacey was not able to make adequate progress because she missed too many days," Green said, noting that Lacey's other medical conditions, asthma and chronic bronchitis, complicated the H1N1 virus.

Lacey said she had a fever for an entire week. The school district has asked parents -- through its Web site, posters, fliers and other notifications -- to keep sick children home and return them to school only after a fever has been gone for 24 hours.

"Part of my frustration is that she is a very smart girl who has been having some really tough times," said Green, 29, who is Lacey's sister.

"I'm a little calm now, but I'm still shootin' for blood. They took her out of school and didn't even give us a notice. We don't even know if she is supposed to go to school tomorrow."

Lacey said Mountain High and school district officials have offered her enrollment in an adult education program rather than the alternative school program.

Kathleen Chronister, director of alternative schools for the district, said she is not at liberty to discuss specific cases relating to students and could not give details about Lacey's school schedule. Daily attendance calls to parents or legal guardians while a child is absent are part of the district's attendance policy.

"There has been no one excluded from school because of swine flu," Chronister said.

Green disagreed with Chronister's statement.

"That is totally, totally wrong," she said. "That is what they've done in Lacey's case."

The district's attendance policy also states that family emergencies, illness and extenuating circumstances are legitimate reasons for absence. The policy also states that a student older than 16 can be excused from school attendance if the school board finds "sufficient evidence to support a finding by the superintendent that the student ... is unable to profit from attendance at school because of inability to a continuing negative attitude toward school regulations and discipline."

The policy further requires that a certificate be issued by the district's director of student services, giving a specific time period for the excuse from attendance.

Green said Lacey's medical and family problems have caused numerous absences in years past, resulting in Lacey's attendance at the alternative school. In addition to the H1N1 illness, she said, Lacey had three other absences since the beginning of school that were because of illness.

Lacey said she still has work to make up from the term that ended Oct. 29, but she has not been told whether she will get to make up that work.