The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends that children who are discovered to have head lice should not be sent home from school.
Apparently, it is too stigmatizing.
The new approach is to help prevent social stigma and psychological stress.The AAP says head lice is not a health hazard or a result of poor hygiene. They say lice can not jump or hop and can only crawl.This means transmission has to happen through head-to-head contact.Experts say all members of the household should be checked and a child should remain in class, but avoid close contact with others.School officials should protect the child’s confidentiality.
Civil liberties are at issue.
…[C]hildren who are infected with lice should be allowed to return to school, the AAP says, even if they are not lice-free yet.The AAP even suggests that zero-tolerance policies on lice infections “may violate a child’s or adolescent’s civil liberties.” The AAP says it discourages such policies and asks schools to address their legal counsels about them.
My son would routinely get sand in his hair in pre-school, which would routinely get called “lice eggs” by one of his teachers. I spent a bit of time shampooing his hair with “Nix.” He appears to be a happy, healthy, well-adjusted individual today.
Head lice do not cause disease and are spread chiefly by contact with the hair of an infested individual.
In the United States, infestation with head lice is most common among pre-school children attending child care, elementary schoolchildren, and the household members of infested children.Although reliable data on how many people in the United States get head lice each year are not available, an estimated 6 million to 12 million infestations occur each year in the United States among children 3 to 11 years of age.
Of course, people have opinions about this change in guidance.
In the name of equity, all the kids now get head lice!
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