Parent volunteer lice checks - can I opt out?

[Anonymous]

How does one go about being licensed for lice checks anyway? I've been looking for a part time job.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How does one go about being licensed for lice checks anyway? I've been looking for a part time job.

This is DC. You need a master's degree in lice management at minimum, preferable from an Ivy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Only on DCUM would you find defenders of parents doing lice checks on random children who happen share a classroom with their children. School nurse or teacher? If there's a good reason to look that's fine. Maybe these parents could set up shop at playgrounds or children's library space and inspect every stranger first so their precious kids doesn't catch lice

I don't want a random parent in my kid's head for any reason. I would complain to the principal to make it stop immediately as the parents are over the line of acceptable behavior.

I did not read it that random parents were checking heads. I read it that the school has authorized a cadre of parent volunteers who are doing this in an organized fashion. Obviously you have never had lice in your child's class; if you had, you would be applauding.

no. lice is common and part of the drill. the best you can do is check your own child and stay on top of it. tying up hair is a good idea as it seems like girls with long hair are more susceptible. the hysterical parents will be hysterical about other stuff too.

and it is random parents. no one is deputized by the school or carries any authority to do this. easy enough to opt out but I'd stop if outright as it's inappropriate.

[Anonymous]

For the benefit of the entire class, why not bring up the issue of privacy for everyone? It could be done in the nurse's office with each check done behind a closed door, with the rest of the children lined up outside. That way none of the children affected would be stigmatized. Right?

Just have a word with the teacher, OP.

[Anonymous]

They send a million forms home for the parents to sign. If they need for parents to check their kids' heads for lice - have them sign a form saying that they've done so. Maybe the form can educate parents about what to look for, what lice and nits look like.

Any kid that doesn't bring a signed form back to school can then be checked by parent volunteers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Only on DCUM would you find defenders of parents doing lice checks on random children who happen share a classroom with their children. School nurse or teacher? If there's a good reason to look that's fine. Maybe these parents could set up shop at playgrounds or children's library space and inspect every stranger first so their precious kids doesn't catch lice

I don't want a random parent in my kid's head for any reason. I would complain to the principal to make it stop immediately as the parents are over the line of acceptable behavior.

I did not read it that random parents were checking heads. I read it that the school has authorized a cadre of parent volunteers who are doing this in an organized fashion. Obviously you have never had lice in your child's class; if you had, you would be applauding.

no. lice is common and part of the drill. the best you can do is check your own child and stay on top of it. tying up hair is a good idea as it seems like girls with long hair are more susceptible. the hysterical parents will be hysterical about other stuff too.

and it is random parents. no one is deputized by the school or carries any authority to do this. easy enough to opt out but I'd stop if outright as it's inappropriate.

You should be down on your hands and knees thanking the kind parents who are taking the time to try to stem the inevitable lice infestation that eats up so much of your time and energy. Yikes. Loosen up! And so what if other kids know yours have lice? That's good - they they know to be careful. When my kids get it - I have no qualms about telling their friends so they can check. They might be the one who passed it on. It should carry a stigma at all - unless you keep getting it because you are too lazy to get rid of it properly!

[Anonymous]

Put me in the category of not wanting untrained parents checking for lice. I don't want to be in the position of trying to convince the school that my kids' dandruff (or whatever) is not lice. Is the school taking the volunteers' word that they know what a nit looks like? Or do they actually go through some training on what to look out for?

[Anonymous]

Do these checks even work? I was told that it is pretty much impossible to find lice by just looking at your kids head. You have to put oil or a special gel on your kids head, and use a lice comb, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How does one go about being licensed for lice checks anyway? I've been looking for a part time job.

This is DC. You need a master's degree in lice management at minimum, preferable from an Ivy.

The Barry Institute for Lice & Other Parasites (BILOP) handles all school-based training and certificates.

[Anonymous]

Oh I get it. OP's kid is too good to have lice. Right.

And to the OP who says these don't work I challenge you to a duel, or a dance off, or whatever. I can find lice a mile away. Sadly I'm not certified though so I'm of no help to the school

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
For the benefit of the entire class, why not bring up the issue of privacy for everyone? It could be done in the nurse's office with each check done behind a closed door, with the rest of the children lined up outside. That way none of the children affected would be stigmatized. Right?

Just have a word with the teacher, OP.

Everyone will realize that your child has lice when the child returns to the classroom, collects his stuff, and leaves for the day. This doesn't help retain privacy.

[Anonymous]

IMO the problem is not the lice checks but the very good possibility of gossipy parents spreading the word that little larlo or larla have it.

[Anonymous]

New poster, but I wanted to relay our experience. My daughter went through lice checks by parent volunteers at school a couple of years ago. She was pretty young and never said much about it to us. This summer, she found out they would do a lice check before camp started. She broke down in tears and told us she didn't want to go to camp. She finally relayed to us how much she hated having strangers at school poking through her hair, that they had often ended up pulling her hair, and that they were talking about the kids with one another while doing it. She is not particularly sensitive, but it left a real impression on her.

I don't deny that lice is a huge pain and we have dealt with it twice at VERY inconvenient times in life. I don't want to deal with it again, and I check my kids at least once a week. But I would ask to opt out of school checks, particularly if the school had parent volunteers checking.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
For the benefit of the entire class, why not bring up the issue of privacy for everyone? It could be done in the nurse's office with each check done behind a closed door, with the rest of the children lined up outside. That way none of the children affected would be stigmatized. Right?

Just have a word with the teacher, OP.

Everyone will realize that your child has lice when the child returns to the classroom, collects his stuff, and leaves for the day. This doesn't help retain privacy.

DC Policy is that children are allowed in the classroom with lice. If identified during the day, they have a note sent home and as long as treatment is underway they can return.

[Anonymous]

I'm thinking OP doesn't want "dirty colored people" and/or "foreigners" touching her kid. Or she thinks the exams will somehow give her kids lice. Both of those are things my crazy racist father would have ranted about had lice checks been instituted at my school back in the day.