Eeewwww....Head Lice and the Ridiculousness of it all

I have 5 children, 4 boys in grades 4, 6, 8 and 10.  All of whom have short hair and have made it safely through the halls of public education with nary a single head lice (louse?) in sight.  My 2nd grader is a girl, you know the kind with long hair.  Not just long hair, but thicker than thick long hair.  She's the one whose class keeps getting a lice alert!  It is killing me!  Last week was the 5th time this year we have had an alert about lice in the class. 

**I looked for a picture to paste here, but they made me itch, so I'm sparing you**

The part that's really killing me?  The school isn't telling us-it's moms spreading the word in order to help out other moms, no children's names are included, just a heads up about another outbreak.  The school cites privacy  issues as the reason they can't tell parents about these outbreaks.  The lice hit the fan last week though, with this 5th outbreak.  A mom had her fill of stinky shampoos and tiny fine tooth combs, and she had it out with the school administration and demanded a note be sent home to parents telling of the outbreak.  She won in the end, kind of.  A very generic note was sent home stating there had been "an increase in outbreaks in the community" and warning parents to check their children regularly before bedtime as a result.  Funny that I have 3 kids in this school, and it only came home with the one child, but as the school assured me that "doesn't mean there are actually cases of lice in that classroom."  Right, you just randomly picked this class to send notes home with, wink, wink.

I really don't understand the state of schools and society in general.  Since when did we become so consumed with privacy?  I can understand protecting a child's privacy-so they send home a note and it witholds the name, but says other children in the class have lice, please check your child and take care of any issues.  That makes sense, but to refuse to tell any of the parents because of privacy?  huh?  Who decides where that line is?  And how are they basing these decisions?  This is just the tip of the iceberg, and I really don't want to get into it all, so just thought I'd share a slice of lice (oops, that should have said life, but I really did type it that way on accident, and it was too funny a slip up to erase!)

Thank goodness it's Spring Break this week, and we can rest easy knowing there are no lice lurking on our funiture, under our beds, or on our heads!


Just typing this post is making me itchy.  I think I'll go wash my hair, again!