Whose responsibility is it: Keeping schools and students healthy in light of the Ebola cases

Last week in my Critical Literacies class we began by discussing the Ebola cases in the United States. Specifically considering the second nurse who boarded a flight despite her knowledge that she was displaying symptoms of Ebola (thus making her contagious). Naturally in the course of this conversation someone asked: "What was she thinking risking contracting it to the others on the plane?" we all nodded in agreement when another student responded: "But that is what we do all the time. We come to class sick and contagious." Since this discussion I have been wondering whose responsibility is it to keep others healthy and why do we as students and in the United States rarely consider our societal obligations when we are ill to not get others ill.
What I have concluded is that we are taught that even if we are sick that our obligations to school/ work/ what have you is more important than our own health and the health of others. In fact, we are told as a mild threat that not only will our school work suffer if we remain at home when sick but so will are grades. Something that has been bothering me since my entry into graduate school is the continual reminder that if more than a single class is missed then my grade will suffer and I could possibly even fail the class, unless a doctor's note is provided. Though often professors are often lenient regarding this rule the point is that the threat is still present in the syllabus making me fear even more than I already do (which seems impossible) getting sick and though over the years I have placed a higher value on my own health and maintaining the health of my classmates than attending class while sick this concern is still present.
In our society we seem to instill in children a sense of guilt about remaining home when sick so that instead of resting they drag their barely up to par bodies to school often times so congested and exhausted that they are not even able to pay attention in class. Then they return home sicker than before (since they were using all their energy to stay awake in class and deal with school rather than fighting their illness) and probably having given their illness to at least one other person. This then creates a domino effect, especially in elementary, middle, and high school. For example my first year of high school I got a terrible throat cold the week of finals and since it was finals I refused to stay home  because I knew it would be a battle to get the school to allow me to make up my finals (the day of my physics final I was so sick I could barely see straight) so instead I went and since everyone else around me was sick and my immune system was shot I just kept getting sicker and sicker. This achieved nothing and though I passed all of my classes (which I am shocked I passed physics) nothing was gained or learned from going to school so sick.
The point that I am trying to get to with this blog is that we are looking at this woman who made the obviously irresponsible decision to fly while contagious but we are not often taught to act on our social responsibility and remain home (or go to the bleed'n hospital) when we are sick and contagious. We are instead taught to value work and school and whatever else over our health and the health of others and to feel guilty if we choose to nurse ourselves back to health rather than attend that 75 minute class in which we will learn little to nothing because we feel horrible.
So whose responsibility is it not only to teach children to consider their health and the health of others before school or work? As well as whose job is it to teach children the simple rules of how to stay well (wash your hands, don't share anything, cover your cough, ect.)? Obviously at the end of the day it is the individual's responsibility to be able to make the right call but how they make that call and for what reasons can be greatly effect by what they are taught.

Ethnography with Indigenous Youth

Though I have not yet completed the Humanizing Research chapter "Activist Ethnography with Indigenous Youth" by McCarty, Wyman, and Nicholas I am struck by what they are exploring and my own experiences.
I was born and raised in the southwestern city of Durango right next to the Southern Ute Indian reservation in Ignacio (along with about 4 other reservations). Due to Durango's proximity to the reservation and the relative low economic status that was Ignacio many of the children from the reservation attended school with me. As a child I never really understood the tension that existed in the United States between Native Americans and what is easily defined as their Colonizers. So I did not get why as the years progressed those that I had been friends with in elementary school began to exclude themselves from all their other peers into a tight knit group. In fact, the majority of my peers did not understand why the Indian students did this either and rather than try to understand we ignored them, displayed obvious discomfort around them (for they were the obvious "other" to us) and titled them as stuck up, antisocial, and rude. As I have gotten older and thought on this more I begin to understand why they chose to isolate themselves but I can only make guesses. It is possible that it was a tool of self preservation and protection or an unspoken agreement to stick together. I do not know if any of them spoke their "heritage language" though I do remember learning that many of the tribes surrounding our area held onto their language by a string due to the elders (the only ones who knew the language) dying off and the youth no longer wanting to learn it. I recall the urgency of this problem even now and the unspoken message that if these languages died that was it.
More specifically I remember in elementary school we took a field trip to Ignacio to visit the KSUT station. The day that we were there the city had finally resolve to tear down the Indian Boarding School like the one Jonathan mentions on page 85. I remember vividly standing watching the wrecking ball decimate the prison-like concrete building with the images from the video that we had just been shown documenting the history of this building. A video that mirrored Jonathan's own descriptions of these places: "They [government officials] took the children away from their families at a young age, and they instilled this image that is still alive - this image of self-hate. To be ashamed of who you are ... Its all about survival since 1492 ... It's all about how far will you go to - to survive" (85). I felt overwhelmed while watching this building fall by emotions I did not understand then and are now too far removed from me to explore now. I do recall experiencing a misplaced feeling of regret (I did not understand) as I looked at the few metal framed beds that had been forgotten teetering on the edge of a broken floor and wondered at the angry words graffitied on the walls, regret at destroying something that I believed to be part of history but now understand to be a symbol of oppression and destruction of a fragile culture.
I now wonder as the oppression of Indian culture continues to this day how we as teachers can incorporate it into our classrooms? How can we bring these legends, songs, languages (many of which I grew up listening to myself) into the classroom not as remnants of ancient cultures but as parts of living cultures?