this post was submitted on 27 Jul 2025
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Lawrence County Board of Education says ‘absences are not excused’ in most circumstances, even illness

A school district in Tennessee will no longer accept doctor’s notes as an excuse for a child’s absence in an apparent attempt to prepare them for the workplace.

New rules set out by the Lawrence County School System Board of Education state that “absences are not excused” and only permits them in a number of specific circumstances. Regular illness is not included in the list.

Sanctions for multiple instances of alleged truancy include loss of school event privileges and even referral to juvenile court for truancy.

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[–] Stovetop@lemmy.world 150 points 6 days ago (3 children)

in an apparent attempt to prepare them for the workplace.

Doctors literally issue sick notes for employers, too.

On the one hand, I am in favor of eliminating the dependence on doctor's notes because it's just a waste of everyone's time (if someone says they're sick, just believe them and leave it at that). But to say that being sick is not an excuse for being absent is so many levels of mind-bogglingly dumb, I don't even know where to begin.

[–] Caffeinated_Sloth@lemmy.world 65 points 6 days ago (4 children)

For some people, getting a doctor’s note involves spending money for it because they don’t have medical insurance.

[–] skulblaka@sh.itjust.works 36 points 6 days ago

Well luckily now it doesn't matter, you're coming to work with tuberculosis no matter whether you can afford a doctor or not.

I'm curious how long it's going to take to kill off the entire state of Tennessee through treatable disease. Because that's the obvious end point of this policy.

[–] BradleyUffner@lemmy.world 5 points 5 days ago

Even people WITH insurance pay to see doctor in the United States.

[–] Tollana1234567@lemmy.today 4 points 5 days ago

it also wastes the doctors time too, after each visit the doctor has write down the whole appointment in thier logs.

[–] gabereal@sopuli.xyz 4 points 5 days ago (1 children)

I assumed most people were spending money to see a doctor, regardless of their insurance status, because insurance almost always requires co-pays. If you are insured, you are (hopefully) paying less to see a doctor than you otherwise would have, but you're usually going to be shelling out money for the doctor's visit either way.

[–] DanVctr@sh.itjust.works 3 points 5 days ago

Hopefully, but most people have high deductibles that mean that their insurance doesn't really kick in until the end of the year, if at all.

[–] corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca 15 points 5 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

The doctors note is just an intentional barrier to make calling in sick more difficult. Because no one in America has enough days off, so they take sick days to cover for incidentals, and that's somehow bad.

Buddy's gonna come to the office with the whooping ebola measles and shut down an office because everyone gets it. And they still won't learn.

[–] michaelmrose@lemmy.world 6 points 6 days ago (1 children)

This is honestly rarely the case because most sick outs are for short term illnesses people rarely seek treatment for and primary care rarely has capacity to see anyone same day.

Meanwhile urgent care is expensive and could entail driving to and waiting hours to spend over $100. Nearly as arduous as going to work with the inverse effect on your bank balance. People aren't doing this.

It's most common to have a certain number of occurrences that are acceptable regardless of cause and to get a doctors note for a condition if it an ongoing issue will cause you to continually miss too many days

[–] Mirshe@lemmy.world 4 points 5 days ago (1 children)

This depends on the employer. I have absolutely worked (in short bursts) for employers that have told me any sick time must be accompanied by a doctor's note, even for a routine illness like flu, cold, etc. This is usually an attempt to make sure people don't actually take days off, ever, especially since it's often combined with arcane PTO rules.

[–] michaelmrose@lemmy.world 1 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Ya that employer is uniquely bad.

[–] Jiggle_Physics@sh.itjust.works 2 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (1 children)

It isn't unique at all actually. Throughout my years of work I have worked for, or come across, many employers who do this.

[–] michaelmrose@lemmy.world 2 points 5 days ago

It used to be more possible and cheaper to visit nobody does that shit anymore and nobody goes to the DR with a cold

[–] grue@lemmy.world 63 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (1 children)

Sick days aren't for the benefit of the person who's sick, you ignorant Tennessee fucks; they're for stopping them from getting everybody else sick too. Excused absences from school and sick leave from work exist because not having them makes makes the attendance even worse in the long run!

[–] aceshigh@lemmy.world 7 points 5 days ago

I wonder if this is partly a reaction to COVID.

[–] Zak@lemmy.world 61 points 6 days ago (3 children)

How to make everyone sick in one easy step.

More broadly, there's a cultural problem where coming to school/work/etc... with a contagious disease is seen as virtuous toughness instead of immoral endangerment. I thought the coronavirus pandemic would change this attitude, but evidently not.

[–] onslaught545@lemmy.zip 13 points 6 days ago

This is how to breed a new pandemic in one easy step. Schools are already enormous vectors for diseases.

[–] themadcodger@kbin.earth 12 points 6 days ago

It's in a very red area. They probably didn't believe it was real, while simultaneously injecting bleach and horse dewormer to cure themselves.

[–] NikkiDimes@lemmy.world 6 points 5 days ago

I have covid. Like right now. My friend was begging me to come out to a planned dinner with a group of friends and that it'd be fine.

The place they ate at is a fucking buffet. I need new friends.

[–] Etterra@discuss.online 29 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

This just in, Tennessee School Board doubles down on stereotypes, removes minimum high school education requirement for school board members.

Edit: autocorrect fail

[–] athairmor@lemmy.world 54 points 6 days ago (2 children)

So many levels of fucked up in this. Holy shit.

[–] LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.dbzer0.com 38 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (1 children)

Lawrence county sits up against Giles county. Which has Pulaski in it. Basically a 15 minute drive.

Pulaski is where the KKK was founded.

I found myself living in Maury county these last few years, so it's been interesting to see the legislation that passes around here.

[–] njm1314@lemmy.world 12 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Man I can kind of almost read that map. Could you make it a little bit blurrier?

[–] LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.dbzer0.com 18 points 6 days ago (2 children)
[–] njm1314@lemmy.world 12 points 6 days ago (1 children)
[–] grue@lemmy.world 11 points 6 days ago

I like how he tilt-shifted it instead of blurring it uniformly. He's got some style.

[–] Tollana1234567@lemmy.today 3 points 5 days ago

school to prison pipeland to be exact, thats probably what they are aiming for.

[–] Xaphanos@lemmy.world 40 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Next year's headline: Tennessee teacher sick days at highest rate in country. District accuses them of illegal strike action.

[–] adarza@lemmy.ca 17 points 6 days ago

forced to work in small classrooms with sniffling sick kids legally required to attend would put some teachers' illnesses under workers' comp?

[–] IWW4@lemmy.zip 24 points 6 days ago (1 children)
[–] Fredselfish@lemmy.world 9 points 6 days ago

I hope some parents sus the fuck out that board. Fuck that school district.

[–] ileftreddit@piefed.social 12 points 5 days ago

Welp, forget about moving to Tennessee

[–] joyjoy@lemmy.zip 10 points 6 days ago

I couldn't make it to school yesterday because I had truancy court.

[–] sexy_peach@feddit.org 8 points 6 days ago

I thought great, which school requires a doctor's note for being sick anyways. Oh my have I been wrong apparently.

[–] leadore@lemmy.world 2 points 6 days ago

"We need to git these wimpy kids toughened up ASAP! Those crops aren't gonna pick themselves!" https://lemmy.world/post/33547348