Reply to MCPS lice policy = ignore

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Reply to "MCPS lice policy = ignore"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote]It's "illegal" only in the sense that it would go against Montgomery Co's policy that it made up for itself. It's not like there some civil rights statute that is on point, or a divine law.

My kid's private school has pretty much the opposite approach as MoCo -- eg, they're aggressive and all over this shit, and they aren't cowed into remaining hands off/ silent due to fear of litigation or hurt feelings. Yessss.

Here is Montgomery County's lice policy "that it made up for itself":

http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/policy/pdf/jpbrb.pdf

And here is the American Academy of Pediatrics recommendation the policy refers to:

http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/126/2/392.full

The AAP says:

1. Screening for nits alone is not accurate 
2. There is no proof that screening for live lice affects head lice incidence in schools over time. 
3. Screening for live lice is not cost-effective. 
4. Keeping kids out of school for nits leads to many kids missing school unnecessarily. 
5. The contagiousness of head lice in classrooms is low.

Your school is a private school and can do whatever it wants. But I'm happy to learn that MCPS is basing its policy on actual evidence. [/quote]

That was a pretty good Washington-style effort  on your part, to hide the truth by burying the details that don't support your premise.

Here's what you chose not to include, which I will now helpfully provide from the very same AAP paper:

A. [i]Routine [/i]classroom lice/nit screening is discouraged, [u]however,[/u] it is "prudent to check other children who were most likely to have had direct head-to-head contact with the infested child."

B.  "One way to deal with the problem"  (WHICH MONTGOMERY COUNTY HAS DECIDED AGAINST, HENCE THE OP'S POST) "is to [b]notify parents or guardians of children in an infested child's classroom [/b]" that their anonymous classmate has lice, and "encourag(e) all children to be checked" at home, and treated, [i]before returning to school.[/i]

MoCo picked and chose from among reasonable AAP recommendations.  Some parents stuck in the vortex cycle of surprise lice infestations every month of so wish MoCo had chosen different and still very reasonable protocol used by other enlightened school jurisdictions.  Based on the points above, initially omitted by rebutting PP.
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