Punishing students for being sick doesn’t build discipline — it just guarantees someone’s going to show up contagious and make it everyone’s problem.

A college student got diagnosed with the worst strep case her urgent care had seen all season, but with three classes that dock points for any absence regardless of the reason, staying home wasn’t really an option.

Her backup plan was the kind of malicious compliance professors don’t see coming until it’s too late.

Keep reading for the full story.

AITAH if I show up to my college classes this week with strep throat if they don’t allow excused absences with doc note?

I (23F) have 3 in person classes this week (Mon-Thurs) and none of them allow any absences without minus however many points off of final grade.

The policy on sick time is incredibly strict.

Even actual excused absences (doc notes/family emerg/deaths) aren’t allowed because all of them have rules that they’re not going to be forced to decide one person’s emergency is more important than others.

So soon she discovers she’s genuinely very sick.

Today I went to urgent care literally 1 hour after my PCP closed (I was napping lol) and they tested me for strep and said I’m their visually worst case this season yet.

I’m laying in bed right now with a 101.8 fever 2 hours after taking some Tylenol for my 102 fever lol.

But she worries about the impact this would have on her grades.

If I don’t go to any classes this week I lose double the points for each class but not get others sick.

If I do go, I will be the “bad guy” who comes to classes with a highly contagious thing but will keep my perfect grades.

She begins to question whether she should take the gamble or just accept the cost.

I’m thinking about going in hopes they see how sick I am and ask what I got and they send me home after attendance because they don’t want to be sick.

AITAH?

Her professor was about to learn why rigid policies like these are always a bad idea.

Redditors are sure to have some strong opinions on this one.

This rule is just plain unfair!

If she’s going to go to class, she might as well make her professor uncomfortable.

This user thinks this student can handle just one well-deserved sick day.

Why not just announce her sickness to everyone?

She’s not the villain for showing up sick — she’s the inevitable result of a policy that left her with zero good options.

Let’s hope she encourages the professor to be a little more forgiving with his next class.

If you liked that story, read this one about grandparents who set up a college fund for their grandkid because his parents won’t, but then his parents want to use the money to cover sibling’s medical expenses.