by Luke Higginbotham

Bellbrook High School was hit with an unusually large wave of sickness to start the 2026-27 school year. The sickness caused a spike in absences compared to the first two weeks of the past four school years.

From the 2022-23 school year to the 2025-26 school year, absences in the first two weeks of school averaged at 372.75 total absences. This school year 496 total absences were recorded in just the first two weeks. 

This amount of people out of school can certainly affect classrooms and teachers to get a good start to the year. Bellbrook sophomore Belle Crabtree only missed one day and it had an effect on her learning.

“I only missed one day and had to make up multiple tests,” Crabtree said. She was out on a Monday due to headaches, congestion and fatigue; these are the main symptoms spreading throughout the school.

“My grades on those tests definitely could have been better if I didn’t have to miss that day,” Crabtree said. The effect absences can have on a student’s success is apparent at the beginning of this school year.

While students are affected by all the sickness, so are the teachers. High school principal Mr. Hann also experienced a difference to the start of the year due to the sickness. “We’ve definitely had a lot of teachers feeling it but we usually still come in,” Hann said.