Nit-pick, You Nitwit

In the comments to yesterday's post, Shobe suggested that I should have called the nit-infested child's guardian so that she could have been picked up. In retrospect, I wish I had thought of that. But since I was the afterschool dance teacher, you'd think the regular teacher would have addressed the issue earlier in the day, wouldn't you? Since this was my first encounter with such an issue and it could unfortunately come up again in the future, I was curious to know what the protocol is for our public schools.

I've been doing a bit of research and I'm stunned. First the obvious: Kids with lice cannot attend school and are welcomed back to the classroom after the lice are gone. Good to hear. I read in one place, however, that the Department of Education is very interested in minimizing the amount of instructional time missed by students with lice, so they recommend that a child diagnosed with lice during the school day be allowed to remain in class with other students until their parent can come and get them. By all means, let's keep the lice-infested kid around longer giving him/her a better chance to infect more students who will then have to miss school until they're lice-free. That's some pretty sound logic there, Department of Education. Isn't that what the nurse's office is for? A glorified waiting room where you can rest away from the other children until your mom or dad can come and get you? Honestly, does anyone even use the nurse's office for anything other than that?

Until recently, most schools had a no-nit policy which means that children with nits aren't allowed at school either. Makes sense, doesn't it? If you're trying to contain the infestation of lice, you'd want to keep both the lice and their eggs out of the schools because (now this is some advanced biology here, so read carefully) lice eggs develop into lice. Well schools are no longer advocating a no-nit policy stating that "there is no scientific basis to confirm the effectiveness of such programs." Our schools don't have a no-nit policy so sadly I don't think I could have sent my student home.

However unscientific a no-nit policy may be, it makes sense to me. I might have to start some no-nit crusade once Una starts kindergarten. I don't want lice and/or nits around because a. they're gross, and b. I'm lazy. Recommendations I found online for getting rid of lice include these: "Comb through hair using a fine-tooth lice comb and/or two fingers sliding the nits off of the hair shaft ("nit-picking"), until all or most lice and nits are gone. This can take 1-8 hours according to one shampoo manufacturer! Complete nit removal is time-consuming but is critical for successful treatment. Sometimes a haircut can help speed up the process."

Have you seen this gorgeous hair?
Do you think de-lousing those tresses would be on the 1 hour end of the scale or the 8 hour end of the scale? I'm guessing 8. And for the record, I'm not eager to cut it off just because some kid was allowed to come to school sporting lice eggs as a hair accessory. His/her nitwit of a parent should have nit-picked his/her hair before sending their kid back to school, nits intact.

Oh, and as of now, I'm no longer going to use the phrase "nit-picking," "nit-pick," or "nit-picky" in everyday vernacular. I didn't realize its origins and now that I know, I'm more than a little grossed out.

Workout update: I did workout this morning. It was not pleasant. 35 minutes into it I had a sneezing fit, but I persevered. Because of my congestion I could feel and hear the fluid in my ear canal thumping each time my feet did a revolution on the elliptical. Unless there are some serious changes in my health status tomorrow, I'm not going to subject myself to that again. I'll take the advice of Amydear who wrote in Sunday's comments that I should let my body feel better. First Shobe, then Amydear. As you can see, I take comments seriously.