WESTFIELD — The past few weeks have really bugged Chrystal Zobel.
The Westfield resident and mother of two students at Highland Elementary School has been contending with a recent bout of head lice with her two children.
Miniscule, grayish-white bugs, lice infest the scalps of small children during the late fall and winter months, and have long been a nuisance in schools.
“I haven’t heard of any other schools,” she said regarding potential outbreaks around the city’s elementary institutions. “But all of the kids who go to the YMCA or the Boy’s and Girl’s Club, they come from all the schools.”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that there are between six and twelve million head lice infestations each year in the United States among children between the ages of three and eleven years of age.
It is the contention of health experts, however, that despite causing itchy scratching and irritation, lice do not spread disease and are not considered a health hazard.
Joseph Rouse, the new director of the city of Westfield’s Health Department, said that he wasn’t aware of any outbreaks at any of the city’s schools, but that he was aware of one particular case at Highland, which the nurse referred to the school principal.
“I haven’t received one call or email,” said Westfield Superintendent Dr. Suzanne Scallion. “Any school I’ve worked at, there have been lice. It’s part of childhood.”
She said that the school does not have a lice problem, but this time of year is conducive for the pests to begin making appearances.
“It is very common,” Scallion said “People need to be educated and to know that it has nothing to do with cleanliness – it has to do with luck.”
Scallion said that the district has “all sorts of precautions in place” regarding things like children sharing hats, but that the overall policy in dealing with the pests hasn’t changed, despite numerous states adopting more lenient policies regarding lice.
“We’re very fortunate in that we have fantastic nurses in every building (in the district), and for the climate here,” Scallion said, before harkening back to her days as a principal in California. “We didn’t even have a school nurse, so often times I had to do head checks.”
Recently, schools in Tennessee, California, Florida, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico and South Carolina have been adopting the aforementioned lenient policies, which are meant to help keep children from missing valuable class time, to protect the privacy of children with lice, and to save them embarrassment.
These policies call for are letting kids with live lice in their hair back in the classroom.
In 2010, the American Academy of Pediatrics updated its guidelines and adopted a “do not exclude” recommendation for schools dealing with children with head lice. The organization had encouraged schools to discontinue “no-nit” policies, a policy which Westfield still employs.
“If we see nits, or eggs, on a student, they’re sent home,” Scallion said, adding they can be brought back to school after they’ve been treated and rechecked. “Parents need to buy a nit comb with the treatment products, and use it obsessively, especially on the back of the neck.”
In addition to the AAP, the National Association of School Nurses also revised its position in recent years, to say that children found with live head lice should remain in class but “be discouraged from close direct head contact with others” and that school nurses should contact the child’s parents to discuss treatment.
The Massachusetts chapter of the National Pediculosis Association, however, opposes these lenient lice policies saying they spread the bugs, and that the eggs will hatch new lice and need to be removed before a child is considered lice-free.
“The new lice policy throws parental values for wellness and children’s health under the bus,” says Deborah Altschuler, head of the organization’s Mass. wing. “It fosters complacency about head lice by minimizing its importance as a communicable parasitic disease.”
The association also says lice treatment shampoos are pesticides that are not safe for children and not 100 percent effective, instead urging parents to screen their children’s hair regularly and use special nit combs.
Q: WHAT ARE LICE AND WHO GETS THEM?
A: Lice are tiny grayish-white bugs that infest a scalp, sucking bits of blood every few hours. Lice don’t jump or fly. They crawl. They are not a sign of poor hygiene.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that there are 6 million to 12 million head lice infestations each year in the United States among children 3 to 11 years old. While itchy and unpleasant, health experts say lice don’t spread disease and are not a health hazard.
Q: IF THEY’RE NOT A HEALTH HAZARD, WHY ARE KIDS SENT HOME?
A: Schools and parents feared that children in close quarters would spread lice to one another.
Q: WHY THE CHANGE IN POLICY?
A: Itchy children probably had lice for three weeks to two months by the time they’re sent to the nurse, Pontius says.
Classmates already would have been exposed. There’s little additional risk of transmission, she says, if the student returns to class for a few hours until the end of the day, when a parent would pick up the child and treat for lice at home.
Pontius also doesn’t send lice notes. “It gets out who had lice,” she says, and there’s no need to panic parents. Parents with elementary school-aged kids should check their children’s hair for lice once a week anyway, she says. If they are doing that, then there’s really no need for the notes.
Q: WHAT DO THE EXPERTS SAY?
A: The American Academy of Pediatrics updated its guidelines in 2010 to adopt a “do not exclude” infested students recommendation for schools dealing with head lice. It has long encouraged schools to discontinue “no-nit” policies. The itty-bitty nits — which can often be confused with dandruff — cement themselves to the hair shaft, making removal difficult.
The National Association of School Nurses revised its position the following year. In its guidance, the association said children found with live head lice should remain in class but be discouraged from close direct head contact with others and said the school nurse should contact the parent to discuss treatment.
The association doesn’t have figures on how many schools have adopted less restrictive policies. Policies vary by state and often by school district.
Q: HOW DO PARENTS FEEL?
A: Letting kids with untreated lice remain in class doesn’t sit well with some parents.
“I’m appalled. I am just so disgusted,” says Theresa Rice, whose 8-year-old daughter, Jenna, has come home from her Hamilton County, Tenn., school with lice three times since August.
“It’s just a terrible headache to have to deal with lice,” says Rice. To pick out the tiny nits and lice from Jenna’s long blond hair is a four-hour process. Add to that all the laundry and cleaning — it’s exhausting, she says. Rice had to bag up her daughter’s treasured stuffed animals, which remained sealed for weeks even after Jenna was lice-free.
Jenna’s school implemented a new policy in the past year that allows children with untreated lice to go home at the end of the day, be treated and then return to school. The policy, the district said, complies with the guidelines of both the Tennessee Department of Education and the CDC.
Q: WHAT DO OTHERS THINK?
A: The National Pediculosis Association in Massachusetts opposes relaxing bans on lice and says the updated policies spread the bugs. Pediculosis means infestation of lice.
“The new lice policy throws parental values for wellness and children’s health under the bus,” says Deborah Altschuler, head of the Newton-based group. “It fosters complacency about head lice by minimizing its importance as a communicable parasitic disease.”
The association says lice treatment shampoos are pesticides that are not safe for children and not 100 percent effective. The group instead urges parents to screen regularly and use a special comb to manually remove lice and nits from a child’s hair.
The CDC says the nits are “very unlikely to be transferred successfully to other people” — and many schools have dropped their no-nit policies. But supporters of no-nit rules, such as the National Pediculosis Association, say the eggs will hatch new lice and need to be removed before a child is considered lice-free.
