The Sea to Sky school district is changing its policy on head lice. Students with head lice will no longer be asked to stay home.
According to the new policy: “It is recognized that head lice infestations are considered by public health as a nuisance condition and as such do not pose a serious health problem. Therefore, a child shall not be denied admittance to school because of head lice.”
“The biggest thing that we added [to the policy] is that the dignity of the students and their families shall be respected,” Phillip Clarke, the school district’s director of instruction, told the CBC.
Clarke told CBC that public health authorities regard the head lice as more of a nuisance rather than a health risk. It is one of the reasons why the district’s policy was up for a change, he said.
He said because head lice isn’t considered a sign of poor hygiene and is not believed to spread disease, there is no need for this “antiquated practices.”
“I don’t think [public lice checks at school] are socially appropriate, but most importantly, it’s not medically necessary,” Clarke said. “There’s just no reason to do that.” The Sea to Sky School board will now educate staff and parents about the detection and treatment of head lice.
The school district has also scrapped the rule which called for mandatory assembly line checking for head lice.
Lynda Gerhardt says
If every child used tea tree oil in their shampoo or those detangling leave in conditioning sprays they won’t get lice …it literally repels them 🙂 It works I totally stand by that.
Al Price says
So, we had a policy that allowed students to be lined up and inspected for lice, and sent home if evidence of them was found, but we don’t have one that says that children must be vaccinated against deadly contagious diseases unless there is a medical reason that they cannot be.
That strikes me as somewhat backward.
Al Price says
Dealing with established facts as opposed to anecdote – There are no reputable data or studies to support that view either in terms of effectiveness or in terms of toxicity. At best, that approach is considered possibly effective to help prevent infestation, but the data is not conclusive.
“While natural products (e.g., tea tree oil) and aromatherapy have been used to treat head lice, efficacy and toxicity data are not available to support either therapy [3][9].”
https://www.cps.ca/en/documents/position/head-lice