During the height of the winter season, Milwaukie High School’s auditorium opened its doors for the first week of performances. After this first weekend of performances, junior Margot Martin-Malone’s mom got sick. Their mom tried to quarantine herself but evidently, it didn’t work because Martin-Malone’s sibling also fell ill. Their dad suggested they stay at a hotel to escape the sickness but she decided that she would rather stay at their friend’s house and have her things brought to them. Martin-Malone stayed at the friend’s house for four days and escaped health intact, having yet to be under the weather all year. 

“I was terrified. I get so scared of getting sick,” explains Martin-Malone, “so I was spiraling.” 

Martin-Malone was cast as Maid Marion, the female lead, for the upcoming production of “Robin Hood and the Heroes of Sherwood Forest” at her school. During preparations for the show, many rehearsals were cancelled due to high levels of sickness, and the director Laura Steenson did not see any reason to rehearse due to the lack of people. Having the understudies perform certain scenes of this particular show posed safety issues. Such as during the meticulously choreographed fight scenes, which could have led to injury for the understudies who had not practiced as much.

Theatre is Martin-Malone’s main passion and something they describe as their “favorite thing ever,” so having rehearsals cancelled was very hard.

When asked about what measures she would like to see taken to prevent sickness, Martin-Malone said: “I like it when people come and they wear a mask that shows that you respect people enough. I do wish that teachers would also take into consideration when kids are sick.” 

Health Center Resources:

At the Milwaukie High School Health Center, they recommend that people take advantage of the resources they offer, such as hand sanitizer, masks, and free vaccines. At the Health Center, vaccines such as flu and COVID-19 are offered free to all students as well as free check-ins.

“Having good primary care and getting those regular six-month check-ins is going to be able to prevent sickness down the road, and it’s going to make you feel more prepared and ready,” says School-Based Health Center Health and Wellness Coordinator Sienna Day. 

The Health Center understands that many students may come to school when they are sick because they rely on the free breakfast and lunch that are provided at Milwaukie. In order for students to stay home and rest while they are sick, the Health Center can give students food so they can focus on taking care of themselves.

Sickness in Competitions:

Sickness does not just affect theatre productions but it can also make other theatre-related activities a challenge, such as the Regional Thespian Conference. The Regional Thespian Conference provides students with the opportunity to receive professional feedback and judgment on their acting or technical theatre skills. From rescheduling final exams and barely getting well in time for their performance, seniors Elliot DeVries and Zoya Morgan, along with sophomore Eli Coppola, tackled the effects of sickness head on when preparing for their regionals performance.

These three Milwaukie students were preparing to perform a scene from “Anna and August” by Don Zolidis when, about a week until regionals, Morgan came down with a sickness. While she was sick, Coppola and DeVries decided to have their friend step in for Morgan’s role. As soon as they did, DeVries got sick. One day later, so did Coppola. By the time they were all better, they only had two days to prepare their piece. They were able to perform at lunch and once after school. 

“I was definitely stressed about it, but I think it was so out of our control … We’re just gonna do our best, and it’s gonna be fine,” says Morgan.

When they all got to regionals, they were nervous due to the lack of preparation. “I felt really intimidated at first, just because I was not sure if I was going to be able to pull it together for the actual performance. But then, after we did our first round, and it went pretty well, I was much more comfortable with it for the rest of the day,” explains DeVries. 

Even after regionals were finished, the three were still dealing with the implications of the sickness. Morgan and DeVries both missed at least one day of finals, and Coppola missed a lot of school as well. “I missed so much in those three little days, and I almost couldn’t catch up, and I had no idea what I was gonna do,” Coppola explains, adding that he wishes teachers would understand that students are not choosing to get sick and that teachers could be more accommodating.

Sickness in the Classroom:

The acting, directing and stagecraft teacher at Milwaukie High School, Laura Steenson, aims to prevent the spreading of sickness in the classroom. She does this by encouraging students to wear masks, use hand sanitizer, and stay home and rest. She also encourages students to distance themselves from each other. “I always remind people if you’re going to share food, split it up first. Don’t eat after each other, because then you’re sharing germs. I have been known to forbid couples from kissing because if one of you is sick, and I don’t want the other one getting sick. So don’t do it,” said Steenson. 

Milwaukie High School and Academy of the Arts has a full primary care clinic on campus, known as the Health and Wellness Center. Sienna Day has noticed that although there are a similar number of sickness cases as last year, the sicknesses have lasted for longer periods of time. These long-lasting illnesses usually have symptoms resembling those of the flu and the common cold.

“We’re seeing students who’ve been sick all the way from September up until now. There hasn’t really been a curve, which I’m used to,” says Day. “Taking care of yourself is public health, and good public health means a strong community, and a strong community means more opportunity to do fun things, which I want for every student.”