Florida School Saying Children Can Come To School With Head Lice

Click to read full story from News 4 Jax
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- Tracie Chaffe has seen her share of lice.She's never seen it in her children's hair, but when she was a teacher, she'd occasionally see a child scratching. And if lice were to blame, there was only one option."They would have to go home. They'd have to get treated for the lice before they were let back into the classroom," Chaffe said.Schools in Duval, St. Johns and Clay counties all have a no-nit policy. If nits or lice are found in a child's hair, the child is sent home and re-inspected when they come back to school. Without a clean head of hair, the student is not allowed back in the classroom.The American Academy of Pediatrics held the same standard until recently."I think this gives the school system a little more breathing space to say, 'We don't have to send them home. We don't have to make those arrangements if we don't need to,'" said Dr. Mary Soho, a local pediatrician.The academy now suggests that no healthy child be excluded or miss school because of head lice. It recommends that schools abandon policies requiring students to stay away until they are free of lice and lice eggs.
____________________________________
JMC Ministries Response
Written By Miranda Caverley
As a person who was continually exposed to school children with head lice and caught it 5 times in one year I will tell you that it is VERY expensive to have to treat yourself to get rid of head lice. You have to not only treat your head, but vacuum, all the furniture wash all the pillows, sheets and vacuum the mattress of the beds. For a school to say that parents need to send their children to school with Lice I think this school better start paying for all the treatment of the children who catch head Lice because those who had it were not told to stay home. Make them pay the bills for the cleaning supplies, lice shampoo, and powders, plus the time the time off work that the parents have to miss treating their children.

Every time I caught head lice I was NOT allowed to come to work at the nursing home where I was a STNA and was NOT allowed back until I had no eggs and lice. If a health care facility is this strict on their policies on head lice to protect their patients and workers, why is this school NOT? For each time I caught head lice in that one year, I had to miss 2-3 days of work until it was completely gone. And because I caught it so much in that one year from the school children I worked with. My hair actually started falling out due to the harsh chemicals that the Lice Shampoos have in them.

A Quick History Lesson
During the holocaust in WW2 lice and fleas caused typhus and other horrible diseases that killed hundreds of thousands of innocent women, men and children. I think this school is clearly more worried about their attendance numbers than the children themselves and their health.