Licegate 2017

God grant me the serenity

to accept the things I cannot change;

courage to change the things I can;

and the wisdom to know the difference

I have had a lice free "scare" so far this year (knocking on wood)! One year my PTA volunteered its board members time so that we could conduct classroom checks on all the 3rd grade students. Ridiculousness! We went back and forth for a bit, she hung up on me, called my principal, called back, we talked about it again, and finally she stopped calling. She got the hint that it wasn't happening!

So the biggest hurdle I'm facing is opposition to our new policy. Letters get sent out (which i don't love, but fighting one battle at a time) to a classroom if I find the active case. Head checks get done on the entire class if there are 3+ cases in that same class. The opposition come in with the parents calling me to tell me they treated for lice and telling me to send out a letter and check the class. I ran it by the big boss to make sure I was in the right by not following the parent requests- he gave me back a written response saying to stay the course we just established.

I feel ya....sometimes I wish the lice situation could me more of a "don't ask, Don't tell" type of thing....irresponsible I know but it does get old/irritating after awhile dealing with the same issue with the same folks.

As I have navigated the lice hysteria through many years. I will admit that I am closer to "don't ask, don't tell" than I ever thought I would be.

We're not even allowed to do classroom searches anymore. Unless the teacher sees the child itching, I only send a letter home to all the students to parents, that's it. I had a student ask if I'm doing any lice screenings, and I'm like what? "Like the hearing screenings, but for lice."

Oh i get that all. the. time. "My kid only gets lice from this school"...Yes, because we carry in bags of it and place it on ONLY your childs head! I also hate the whole class head check, but do it to please my principal and the teacher, We do not send notes home.

It is always the same children with it as well, these parents claim that they "do everything" but we know they don't.

And really, MAYO is not a lice cure...go get some bread for a sandwich! I hate stupid people!

We send a Lice Information Sheet home if 3 children in the same classroom have it within a 3-4 week span of time OR if 10% of a grade level has it in a 3-4 week span of time. We typically do not do classroom checks (this time was an exception) but I will check a single child if a parent or teacher asks me too. I sometimes have the parent or teacher also asking me to check their heads too and I do.

I don't have a problem checking a random request here and there from a parent - some people have never dealt with it nor know what to look for - I didn't even know what live lice or nits looked like until I became a school nurse. I just don't like the witch hunt it turns into - these parents spend so much time trying to figure out who patient zero is and are convinced their kid got it from someone at school. I am of the attitude - ok you have lice, treat it and move on.