This week, NBC Montana reported that a family had pulled out of Franklin Elementary after having to deal with head lice fourteen times in the past two years. MCPS Health Services Supervisor Linda Simon says some parents think the school system should shift to a No egg policy, but she disagrees.

"What I hear from time to time from parents is a no nit policy," Simon said. "Nits are the eggs, but the nits are not necessarily indicative of an active case of head-lice. Sometimes people misidentify and think that someone has head lice and they actually don't."

Simon says everything from dandruff, to hairspray can be mistaken for lice nits and that a no nit policy could cause unneeded disruption. Furthermore, nits might be visible that hatched long ago. Simon couldn’t speak about the family’s case in particular, but said that, in general, a recurring problem has little to do with school.

"Sometime people think they're done after they do a treatment," Simon said. "But they need to be doing the follow up and keep making sure. They often feel like their child got lice again, and sometime that can be the case, I'm not saying that that is never the case, for some kids, but particularly when they think they got rid of it and then the next week they have another case... they probably never got rid of it, or they're giving it back and forth at home."

According to Simon, if students have an active case of live lice, parents will be asked to take their children home and treat them, but that is not the case if only eggs are seen. Simon says she agrees with the positions laid out in the article "Demystifying Pediculosis: School Nurses Taking the Lead."

 

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