Rational head lice policies for schools

[LadyShea]

My niece is missing her 5th day of school this year due to head lice (she hasn't missed any other days), and now, my brother has to miss work to deal with the situation. Mom got pissed off and called the district health services administrator to find out their policies as what they are doing isn't working.

In researching the issue I found this (http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/headlice.html#children) from the Harvard School of Public Health. It recommends against sending kids home/quarantining and claims the hysterical and irrational responses actually exacerbate the problem. It further claims that lice cause less harm than the toxic treatments used.

We plan to send it to our school district, but I wonder how many districts have similar ineffective policies that cause hardship to working class families. Is this something that should be addressed at the state level? Because lice really don't cause illness, it's not even a public health concern, but more a hysterical reaction to "uncleanliness".

I also found this (http://www.aap.org/advocacy/archives/septlice.htm) from the AAP, discouraging the "not nit" policies most school districts have

[beyelzu]

well, i had lice a couple of times as a child and yeah they sent us home right quick.

once i got sent home when i didnt even have lice cuz some other kid had lice and i was poor and shabbily dressed.

[LadyShea]

once i got sent home when i didnt even have lice cuz some other kid had lice and i was poor and shabbily dressed.
bey, great example of another problem with the policies. They often target the poor and minorities unfairly. They cannot possibly check every single child every day, so who do they check?

[beyelzu]

well, at my school there were times when allegedly they checked all the children, but i would still think that the poor kids get checked more thoroughly.

the principle who sent me home on the day in question actually said that he was sure but he thought he might have seen on moving and that was enough.

[Julie]

In our school ALL the kids get checked once a month. If nits and or lice are found the parents are told at the end of the day, the child is sent home with a form asking parental permission to in the future wet comb their childs head at the school (It's done with a lice comb and good ol conditioner, and it's very effective) The parents are giving info packets on treatments, with the wet combing being the most recommended.

2 years ago we had a HUGE out break, that was reoccurring because of a small minority of children whos parents didn't treat them at all at home. We have a group of parents that are willing and able to take the time to deal with it from with-in the school. We've yet to have a parent say no you cant put conditioner on my kids head.

No one gets sent home, no one has to stay home either. If the parents are unable or unwilling to treat we can and will do it at the school.

I can totally see this not flying down in the states though. It would probably cause a big kerfuffle.

[LadyShea]

Julie, that's a totally reasonable policy!

So, I called the state board of education and she said it was a district level decision and the woman we talked to was "the expert" on head lice as informed by the CDC (which has no policy suggestions, I checked).

I responded that their expert didn't seem to have rational policies in place. Anyway I wrote this on behalf of my mom, and plan to send it to the district health supervisor, what do you think?

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Thank you for speaking to me today. My granddaughter, XXX XXXX, who attends XXX Intermediate, has now missed 5 days of school due to suspected head lice. She has missed no other school and is otherwise healthy. She is one of many kids who have been sent home due to suspected head lice several times. Her father, my son, is a single parent who works for XXXX and cannot possibly take this much time off work, and is often in the field and can’t be reached, so I have had to pick her up from school on several of these occasions.

Both the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Harvard School of Public Health have stated that “no nits” polices and the exclusion/quarantine of children suspected of having lice are not effective responses. Head lice are not known to transmit diseases or directly cause illness, so are more of an annoyance than a health hazard. Further, many cases of head lice are misdiagnosed, and there are health risks associated with use of toxins and pesticides, so treating a misdiagnosed case may actually harm children rather than benefit anyone.

The treatments are quite expensive and possibly beyond the means of many working class families, and parents are being forced to miss work to be with their healthy, but quarantined, child. Again, this puts a lot of strain on working class families.

Keeping children in class, educating both children and parents on how to prevent the spread of lice, and sending home a note or card that lice are suspected might be a better policy.

I urge the Baldwin County School District to institute new head lice policies based on sound science and common sense.

You can read the Harvard paper at the following link: Headlice Information, Laboratory of Public Health Entomology, Harvard School of Public Health (http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/headlice.html)

The AAP statement can be found here:
AAP News Release - New Head Lice Statement: AAP Discourages "No Nit" Policies for School Return (http://www.aap.org/advocacy/archives/septlice.htm)
And reads in part

“Because the child poses little risk to others and does not have a resulting health problem, he or she should remain in class, but be discouraged from close direct head contact with others.”

Thank you,
XXXX

[beyelzu]

awesome response.

[JoeP]

Rational activism. I'm all for it.

[viscousmemories]

If there were just reasonable restrictions on the number of poor kids allowed to attend the school there would be many fewer instances of discrimination in situations like this.

[LadyShea]

If there were just reasonable restrictions on the number of poor kids allowed to attend the school there would be many fewer instances of discrimination in situations like this.


Yeah, poor kids and minorities, those historic purveyors of all things foul and pestilent.

[lisarea]

Yay to you guys.

If only more families would hold schools accountable for and demand the reasoning behind their decisions, they might start adopting more rational policies in the first place.

[LadyShea]

It pisses me off because NCLB has led to draconian attendance policies. So if we wanted to take her out of school for 5 days to go on a family vacation (which we are considering*) she will be "unexcused" and my brother may end up with a visit or letter from the truancy officer because it is "detrimental to her education"....but if the school sends her home for no rational reason, it's beneficial? You gotta be fucking kidding me

*She has had a shitty life overall, and we feel spending quality time with family is beneficial. Unfortunately the rest of the world doesn't revolve around school holidays and Fall is the best vacation time. She is a straight A student, reads at high school levels, and rarely gets in trouble so we see no problem with it, but the schools are up in arms.

[JoeP]

Yay to you guys.

If only more families would hold schools accountable for and demand the reasoning behind their decisions, they might start adopting more rational policies in the first place.

Yeah right. Or they would start testing parents for being rational and demanding accountability, and exclude those families (unaccountably).

[Dingfod]

When I was in school, the lice had to sit there and learn just like the rest of us. If not, swats with a wooden paddle were in order.


Ever wonder how many lice were spread by the old-fashioned dunce caps?

[livius drusus]

I remember having to use that nasty sludge shampoo once, like in first grade. I don't know if they made us stay home from school, but I doubt it, primarily because my dad never let me stay home from school even when I was actually sick.

Great letter, Shea. I'm very curious to see what sort of response you get.

[LadyShea]

Oh shit, looky here Welcome to HeadLice.org (http://headlice.org) from the National Pediculosis Association

Head lice continue to be one of the most prevalent communicable childhood diseases among children
and
Head lice represent an important public health problem for children and families

Communicable disease? Important public health problem? What illness does it cause? The only symptoms are the presence of lice and maybe some itching.

With shit like this being put out there, no wonder schools have such policies!

[BDS]

The “National Pediculosis Association” is primarily concerned with selling their “LiceMeister” lice and nit comb for a profit. Their “non-profit” status is dubious. They're run by a single person, who probably takes as large a salary as her sales of LiceMeisters will justify.

I was once an expert on head lice – giving speeches to School Nurse Associations, writing articles, etc.. My company is out of the business now (and have been for a few years), so I’m not quite as up on the subject as I once was, but I’ve discussed head lice with Richard Pollack (who wrote Lady Shea’s Harvard article) and with all the other scientists doing research on the subject (there aren’t that many of them).

One problem: many lice have developed resistance to pyrethroids (pyrethrin and its synthetic equivalent permethrin are the two standard lice treatments; Richard Pollack wrote the article proving resistance). If head lice are treated effectively (in other words if they are killed) the “no nits” policy is utterly ridiculous, because nobody transfers nits from one head to another – only live lice. The prescription treatments lindane (Kwell) is toxic and I wouldn't use it to get rid of head lice -- the cure is worse than the non-disease.

My (formerly) expert opinion: “no nits” policies are harmful to children, their parents, and schools.

[LadyShea]

Interesting BDS. The website did say they were formed to prevent unnecessary use of pesticides, but I naively thought it was because they gave a shit. I should have "followed the money" as per usual!

[Kyuss Apollo]

3/4 of our kids got lice over the summer, probably at summer camp but just as likely from playing with one of the other kids in th neighborhood. Oddly, neither me or mrs. KA got them. We just washed and dried their bedding and hats in the water on hot and the drier on high, and everybody (including us adults) did the comb thing dipped in olive oil. The oil killed all the lice, the comb got all the nits and we were like a big happy family of bruschetta.

[Plant Woman]

It pisses me off because NCLB has led to draconian attendance policies. So if we wanted to take her out of school for 5 days to go on a family vacation (which we are considering*) she will be "unexcused" and my brother may end up with a visit or letter from the truancy officer because it is "detrimental to her education"....but if the school sends her home for no rational reason, it's beneficial? You gotta be fucking kidding me


Just tell them she has lice and will be back in school when you are done <strike>visiting</strike> getting the lice under control.