Wouldn't refusing to treat lice be a CPS concern? (or whatever that agency is called in your area)
I could be wrong, but it was my understanding that in the report regarding Cherish, the focus of the problem was not that she
had lice, it was that the school's policy was that when you actively have lice, you can't be on the school bus. Despite mom knowing this, Cherish was stranded at school twice with no one coming to take her home.
That was my interpretation.
And yeah, in every school across America, perfectly clean and well cared for kids get lice. Just like the flu, only ickier. Lice has nothing to do with cleanliness because regular shampoo wont get rid of them and the only thing they know to do is find hair and skin. Clean, dirty, they don't care, just give me hair and scalp. It passes from clean kid to clean kid via sitting close, sharing hats, combs, brushes, pillows, sofas, etc.
And getting rid of them usually takes a minimum of two treatments 7-10 days apart (second treatment to get rid of any newly hatched/about to be hatched nits missed the first time. YOu then have to wash everything that the child's hair has touched (all bedding, jackets, backpack...)The kits also come with spray for things that can't be washed, like your sofa, mattress.
We're are very financially comfortable family, and I can assure Websleuthers we all bathe daily and wash our hair, depending on the family member, every day or every two days.
My daughter has had the misfortune of picking up lice twice during the school year, winter both times. She has very long, beautiful (clean!) hair that her friends and strangers envy. Like Shampoo commercial pretty and clean. She also rides the bus, where I suspect she may have gotten it. Hard to fumigate a bus that's in service nearly year round. She also has other friends with long hair, and the all sit uber close when they're together, and despite being told not to, I'm sure they swap headbands, clips, hats, borrow brushes at school. The rest of us in the family didn't get it and have never had it. It is labor intensive to wash and fumigate everything...twice. It's hours of work if you're anal retentive like me. I did everything short of putting on a Hazmat suit and giving the kid a Silkwood shower.
Unless the child was so infested that it was obvious Mom had done absolutely NOTHING to treat them, the school would know you can't always get rid of them with a single treatment and wouldn't call DFACS because she had lice one week and the next week they found a few nits. She could still be under treatment.
I thought the school's main concern had been over the fact that they had advised mom that she could not ride the bus lice. It seems they had issues with her abandonment at the school because she had lice. Not the fact she had lice. As in, someone had dropped her OFF at school those days. But no one came and got her.
I need to check and link that, though. :seeya:
