As I was cruising the Internet yesterday (instead of working on anything important), I came across this little gem. You can go back and read the full text, but the gist of the article is that kids with head lice should not be forced to miss school. This was not a hypothesis from some group of yahoos, it came from the American Academy of Pediatrics.
So what the good doctors are saying is that if a child has nits, they stay. The article says sending them home increases the "overall hysteria" and doesn't benefit the child. Also, it says that a child with a few nits "might not ever have a full blown infestation." I don't know about you, but the word might is not strong enough for me, but neither is hysteria (that would just be the tip of the iceberg). Because if one of the monkeys or I was sent home...I don't even want to think about it.
Worst-case scenario. The policy changes, the students don't take my advice of, "Never share a hat or comb, or lice will make your head their home," and I have to wash my hair before AND after school each day. I have never in my life had lice, and I don't intend to...EVER.
My last school district had a "No Live Bugs" policy (with exceptions at times), but did not have a "No Nit Policy." I will say at first I was a little freaked out by this. However, the longer I worked there, the more I started to understand the policy. In lower socio-economic communities, lice can be a part of their every day life. If a student is sent home every time they have nits, that student might not ever be at school. Is it more important for that student to not have nits, or to have an education.
ReplyDeleteTrust me, I so understand and still get itchy every time a student gets sent home with lice, but their education might be the only chance they have to get out of that lice filled home. Just my thoughts. :)
The last line of paragraph one should end in a question mark. Sorry for my error. I just wanted to make a public correction so no one thought I was a grammar idiot. :)
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