Hair Bugs!

"Other cultures do not see lice as a problem, and don't understand why we've asked them to get rid of it. Some families have their own remedies from their countries, which never seem to work. Can you tell this battle has just exhausted us? We spend more time communicating to parents about lice than about their children's reading."

What would you say to this public school teacher?

Apparently, schools shouldn't be bothering with the "check for lice and send kids home" thing so much any more.  I guess that if your child is assigned a seat next to another kid with bugs and ickiness, it's just your tough.  Further, educators are celebrating this recommendation from the American Academy of Pediatrics because (yayy!) that means they can get back to their real job, which is teaching.

Um.  Am I the only one who has a problem with this?

Even in the old days when Patrick was in kindergarten,  the school would not tell you which kids had lice. I just happened to be able to be the involved parent and notice that (Name) was not in school for four days following the "a student in your child's class..." note that was sent home.  This girl sat next to Patrick!  Yuck.

I was grossed out.  It was the first day of KINDERGARTEN, folks.  What kind of trashy family sends their kid to school with head lice SO BAD that a rookie teacher would notice it on the first day of kindergarten??  I knew where this family lived, and they weren't in the homeless shelter or any sort of extreme situation like that.  They drove nice cars and lived in a nicer house than mine!  They just lived with bugs while they wore designer clothes??!  What is up with that?

The school can't control these people and what they do at home, but they SHOULD forbid them from walking in and sharing hairbrushes with all the other students.  They SHOULD bother to check for head lice occasionally, at least in the younger grades when kids are huggy and seated close together.   And if you've been sent home with the bugs, the school shouldn't let you back in until you are bug (and egg!) free.   Have to miss work to deal with this?  Tough nits.  There is no excuse for sending your kids to school to infect mine.  I know YOU wouldn't appreciate it if the situation were reversed.

And you know what?  I've never had lice, and neither have my children.  But that's just fortune and chance.  There is no shame in HAVING lice, just in KEEPING them.  We all know that little girl could have passed on those bugs to Patrick in a matter of seconds. I feel the same way about roaches.  Anyone can get roaches, and sometimes they are hard to get rid of.  But there is NO reason just to live with the problem and do nothing.  Eew.

From the post:

"The worst thing about lice is that your head itches. That, and knowing that you have insects crawling around on your scalp. Other than that, it doesn't get any worse. Strep throat, on the other hand, can get really bad. So can influenza, measles, chicken pox and the mumps. And unlike those afflictions, lice aren't terribly contagious. They can be controlled with reasonable precautions."


"So all in all, there's no compelling medical reason to keep a kid home from school just because she has head lice. The cost of a missed day of school is more than the benefit of a day of quarantine."

Oh, realllly?  The benefit of a day of quarantine is for the UNINFECTED children, not the kid with the nits.  Or the pink eye.  Or the flu.  Or whatever.  I keep my children home when they are sick or buggy.  So should you.