Parent volunteer lice checks - can I opt out?

[Anonymous]

Relax people! I have been on these lice committees. If you are paranoid, you should join the
committee. I thought kids might be embarrassed when found with lice.
I was when I was a kid and went through this. However, at my kids school, 95% of the time, the kid would have a big grin on their face and be excited they could go home in the middle of the day. The other kids would look on in envy and say - lucky, you get to go home and watch tv. I'm not making this up. It happened almost every single time at our JKLM school. No one or at least almost no one seemed the slightest bit embarrassed. Also, once you do a few lice checks, you get pretty good at it. It is not that hard. Kids usually were reading when we checked them. It was very low key and not a big deal and a huge help to the school nurse.

[Anonymous]

Seems pointless and invasive to me.

Lice are less "contagious" than most people think-- the AAP opposes keeping kids out of school for lice, and parents are capable of monitoring and checking for themselves.

We are in MCPS and I have never heard of a parents lice committee (and yes we went through it a few times and yes its a huge pain).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Lice has been with humans as long as we have been evolving.

Lice is just another contagious condition. There's no shame in it. Would you be ashamed of a cold or a runny nose?

No matter what we do or say, there will always be less-responsible or less-educated parents in the class who do *not* take responsibility for lice checking their own kids. If the school is willing to help with this, I am all for it. If the price is that my kid gets her hair looked at, that's fine. I am confident my kid doesn't have lice because I proactively comb her once a week, as everyone should be doing.

Yes the lice checks should be done in relative privacy and basic hygiene standards should be maintained such as gloves and a change of the stick or comb or whatever they are using.

Yes doctors do lice checks. I had my pediatrician do them before I knew what I was doing.

Obvs the school should not be touching your kid if you forbid it so yes, you should be able to opt out. The school should have to get permission from the parents.

If it were up to me, parents who opt out should have to get a doctor's note certifying their kid doesn't have lice. Lice is miserable.

I would want to opt out because I would be skeptical that the lice checks would work. I would not want to leave work early and pick up my kid only to find out that it is dandruff. There are a lot of false positives with lice.

http://www.slate.com/articles/life/the_kids/2015/08/lice_treatment_for_kids_don_t_panic_make_sure_it_s_actually_lice_and_choose.html

At least at our school when a parent finds lice or indcia of lice then the child is sent to the nurse. If the nurse finds lice then the nurse calls the parents, not another parent. Our school nurse knows the difference between dandruff and lice.

[Anonymous]

dear lunatic parents:
Check your kids' heads for lice regularly. Or if they are scratching a lot. Or if you hear of friends and classmates having lice. You don't need training or certification - that is absolutely absurd. Go into the sunlight or use a flashlight and LOOK. Something crawling around? That would be a louse. A whitish spec that is stuck to a hair close to the scalp and doesn't move or want to come off? That's a nit. There. Boom. If you see lice or nits get a fine toothed comb and comb them out. Put them in ziplock bags and watch them die slowly. Have some quality time with your child!
Love,
Everyone else

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Seems pointless and invasive to me.

Lice are less "contagious" than most people think-- the AAP opposes keeping kids out of school for lice, and parents are capable of monitoring and checking for themselves.

We are in MCPS and I have never heard of a parents lice committee (and yes we went through it a few times and yes its a huge pain).

I am a lice lady and I disagree. I would say lice are highly contagious. On what do you base your statement that lice is less contagious than people think?

From a quick google search:

"Are Lice Contagious?

Lice are highly contagious and can spread quickly from person to person, especially in group settings (like schools, childcare centers, slumber parties, sports activities, and camps)." http://kidshealth.org/en/parents/head-lice.html#

The AAP opposes keeping kids out of school because lice is not really a health threat. It's more of an inconvenience. Reliable attendance at school for all kids is considered more important than being lice free. On page 7 of the attached document from AAP, they talk about return to school, the abandonment of "no nit" policies, and the reasons such policies should be abandoned: http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/pediatrics/early/2015/04/21/peds.2015-0746.full.pdf

The AAP also says these school lice checks are not as effective as parental monitoring. However, lice is so prevalent in schools, I would say parental monitoring is not happening the way it needs to. I welcome any effort on the part of the schools to assist in eradicating or at least lessening lice in my daughter's classroom.

Parents are indeed capable of monitoring and checking themselves. Unfortunately, many don't.

[Anonymous]

Yes, parents are capable of monitoring and. He king for themselves but some just don't. We already got the lice letter for one child's class. Check your kids, folks.

[Anonymous]

They send the lice letter home at the beginning of the year automatically, it doesn't mean anyone had lice.

Kids should not be pulled from school for lice as it is not a health threat.

I would not want random parents checking my kid's head for lice. It's unnecessary and invasive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Lice has been with humans as long as we have been evolving.

Lice is just another contagious condition. There's no shame in it. Would you be ashamed of a cold or a runny nose?

No matter what we do or say, there will always be less-responsible or less-educated parents in the class who do *not* take responsibility for lice checking their own kids. If the school is willing to help with this, I am all for it. If the price is that my kid gets her hair looked at, that's fine. I am confident my kid doesn't have lice because I proactively comb her once a week, as everyone should be doing.

Yes the lice checks should be done in relative privacy and basic hygiene standards should be maintained such as gloves and a change of the stick or comb or whatever they are using.

Yes doctors do lice checks. I had my pediatrician do them before I knew what I was doing.

Obvs the school should not be touching your kid if you forbid it so yes, you should be able to opt out. The school should have to get permission from the parents.

If it were up to me, parents who opt out should have to get a doctor's note certifying their kid doesn't have lice. Lice is miserable.

I would want to opt out because I would be skeptical that the lice checks would work. I would not want to leave work early and pick up my kid only to find out that it is dandruff. There are a lot of false positives with lice.

http://www.slate.com/articles/life/the_kids/2015/08/lice_treatment_for_kids_don_t_panic_make_sure_it_s_actually_lice_and_choose.html

At least at our school when a parent finds lice or indcia of lice then the child is sent to the nurse. If the nurse finds lice then the nurse calls the parents, not another parent. Our school nurse knows the difference between dandruff and lice.

and so much for any semblance of privacy for the child. If there's a "health" reason for sending home a child (debatable but the only grounds the nurse has), why should another parent be privy to that information?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes, parents are capable of monitoring and. He king for themselves but some just don't. We already got the lice letter for one child's class. Check your kids, folks.

Agreed. And some people continue to text and drive which is illegal but I can't really influence one way or the other. There's stuff that just can't be controlled no matter how type A. Even vigilant families may catch a case over the course of school years. Do your best and just deal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Lice has been with humans as long as we have been evolving.

Lice is just another contagious condition. There's no shame in it. Would you be ashamed of a cold or a runny nose?

No matter what we do or say, there will always be less-responsible or less-educated parents in the class who do *not* take responsibility for lice checking their own kids. If the school is willing to help with this, I am all for it. If the price is that my kid gets her hair looked at, that's fine. I am confident my kid doesn't have lice because I proactively comb her once a week, as everyone should be doing.

Yes the lice checks should be done in relative privacy and basic hygiene standards should be maintained such as gloves and a change of the stick or comb or whatever they are using.

Yes doctors do lice checks. I had my pediatrician do them before I knew what I was doing.

Obvs the school should not be touching your kid if you forbid it so yes, you should be able to opt out. The school should have to get permission from the parents.

If it were up to me, parents who opt out should have to get a doctor's note certifying their kid doesn't have lice. Lice is miserable.

I would want to opt out because I would be skeptical that the lice checks would work. I would not want to leave work early and pick up my kid only to find out that it is dandruff. There are a lot of false positives with lice.

http://www.slate.com/articles/life/the_kids/2015/08/lice_treatment_for_kids_don_t_panic_make_sure_it_s_actually_lice_and_choose.html

At least at our school when a parent finds lice or indcia of lice then the child is sent to the nurse. If the nurse finds lice then the nurse calls the parents, not another parent. Our school nurse knows the difference between dandruff and lice.

and so much for any semblance of privacy for the child. If there's a "health" reason for sending home a child (debatable but the only grounds the nurse has), why should another parent be privy to that information?

Agree 100%

[Anonymous]

So do you think parents should be able to depend on other parents to check their kids? This does not seem to be working very well. What's your solution?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So do you think parents should be able to depend on other parents to check their kids? This does not seem to be working very well. What's your solution?

I depend on other parents to monitor their kids for strep, colds and other illnesses, but many parents don't do a very good job of it and send their kids to school sick. I don't think, however, that schools should set up parent committees to check for fevers. I don't expect families to produce a doctor's note to prove that their child's runny nose is due to allergies, not a cold. Yet those are contagious, disruptive conditions too and they pose a actual health risk, particularly if a member of the family is immune compromised.

My solution is to accept the risk and deal with it if my child gets lice (which unfortunately has happened twice, but was caught very early due to routine checking at home). When you send your child to school or anywhere out in the world, there is a risk they will catch something. If the fear that he or she will get lice is more than you can bear without monitoring other students, then you can keep your child home. But your fear doesn't entitle you to intrude physically on a child that is not yours or to demand access to another child's private health information.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They send the lice letter home at the beginning of the year automatically, it doesn't mean anyone had lice.

Kids should not be pulled from school for lice as it is not a health threat.

I would not want random parents checking my kid's head for lice. It's unnecessary and invasive.

we got emailed yesterday that a kid in our class has lice. Teacher kindly asked that we all check our kids. Lots of cleaning goes on in the classroom when they find it. Bummer it's only the second week though.

[Anonymous]

What is the proper licensing for bug checking?