what would you do? school Q!

[mum23girls]

My DD in year 2, has a little girl in her class that constantly has head lice. I have been complaining to the school about it since (look out!) week 7 - term 1.

We have only had lice come home once, but generally there are one or two eggs that I can find every couple of days. I can not find live ones, they must be there somewhere!! So I treat them. But knowing that lice get immuned I am reluctant to do it every single time.

The final straw has come where the girl sat in class pulling them out herself last week. The teacher called the office but the office did not come and get her......that is how much of the story I have been told.

Anyhoo, what I want to know what you would do, is would you - send a note home yourself as a parent (the school says they have contacted her parents) or approach the parent yourself - but I don't know what to say to her except - treat your bl00dy childs hair!! Admin are just hopeless!!

I just don't understand how a parent can let their child go untreated for so long!!

What can I do?!:banghead: :banghead:

Taaaaaaaaaa

[munchkin05]

i know my mum went through this with me at school

i had them all the time and mum kept treating me but there was 1 girl in the class that her parents couldnt be bothered

my mum went in and said she was calling the health department and the school soon got ontop of the situation

good luck

[twinkles]

I would definately go see the principal and see if something can be done. If other parents are similarly concerned, perhaps 2 or 3 of you could go see them at once? She is not allowed to be at school when she is untreated, and the edu and health departments will enforce it if a complaint is made. Perhaps if the principal sent the child home every day till it was sorted, it might be attended to. Poor kid :(

As for what else you can do, firstly the ego treatments are really good and the nits do not get immune (we had the same prob with step daughter and her mum not treating inbetween visits LOL). It is naturally based and the nits get suffocated. It is soooo effective and has no chemicals - really good stuff. There is also preventatives you can spray into the hair before school as you brush it with essential oils that the lice find repulsive and I have heard it can prevent re-infestation, it has the added bonus of detangling too. Otherwise, ask for your child to be seated separately from the other child, and the usual hair tightly braided or plaited might help too; but I am sure that you are already doing that.

You must be sooo frustrated with the school's lack of action, I hope it gets sorted out soon for you and the other child too.

Twinkles

[sam's mum]

I can remember when I was at school the school nurse would check everyone in every class every couple of weeks. One kid sold nits for 1c each because then you would get to stay home for a week. :laughing: :laughing:

However now that my daughter is at school I have been told that all they can do is send a note home to the whole class stating that there is a child in the class with nits and to check your child. They told me that they can't even exclude kids with nits anymore!

[Niki]

i remember wen my sis was at skool she had a girl in her class and her mother would never treat her, the girl had lice falling into her eyelashes and everything, eventually becoz so many ppl complained the skool treated her hair

[InSaneOne]

we also have had a major lice problem for the last 5 years. we treat the kids hair every weekend but as the bio mum (who they live with during the week) does nothing it has been really hard. the 2 older girls are now in high school and they seem not to have them anymore (maybe the child that had them is at another school now) just as we thought we had finally got rid of them dss comes home crawling again. that was the final straw. we shaved his head to a number 3 and told him until he goes to high school or the nit problem at school is fixed his hair will be cut every couple of weeks...

[mum23girls]

After speaking with the principal, all she has done is put a notice in the newsletter!! If nothing is done soon, I will speak to her mother myself.

[Desertress]

It makes my head itchy just thinking about them.... i had headlice alot at primary school as i had very long hair and a gilr in my class was alway infested with them..... to the point that you could see them crawling all over head head. I think the mother should be told to trea tthe child because i cant imagine it would be healthy for her to have them all the time wither.

Im sitting here scratching my head just trying to type this LOL

[Lila]

it might be a bit late,
but i agree with what was said. i def. would have a "proper" talk to the principal and mention health dep. ...
they are sometimes so quick with suspensions, but here it seems.....nevermind...
:no:

[mum_2_5]

I have the same problem but my DD3 is in year 3 now. There is nothing the school can do but put a notice in the newsletter. They are not allowed to contact the parents or take the child out of class because of it. Unlike you I do not know what child is the spreading them but I have been doing DD3's hair basically every week for years. DD1 & 2 don't get them, for some strange reason.
Go speak with the parents yourself as the school will not do anything as it is classed as discrimination.

[tera]

:shame: Since when arent the schools allowed to exclude children with head lice? This is a health issue. I would be bringing it up with the health department. If the school is aware of the problem and know the mother/father wont treat her, is it possible for someone else to do it (dont see too many hands going up though). Recently a little girl in my DS class was sent home because she had lice. Although the boy who continuosly keeps bringing them back was sent home it doesnt look like he was treated at all.

Tera

[sam's mum]

Exclusion from School
Exclusion of children from school because of head lice is a drastic response, and if considered by the principle must be in line with departmental policy/position statements (exits this site: Education Queensland document). Exclusion is not a strategy recommended on this site. The experience of the pilot project showed that the development of a whole of school approach, which includes up-to-date information for families and support for families having difficulties in managing head lice, minimises the need to even contemplate exclusion as a strategy.

taken from Qld ed website.

btw, how bad is it that in an education department website they have used principle instead of principal to talk about the head of the school...