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Author | Topic: More pronouncements from the hard-of-thinking brigade | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Trixie Member (Idle past 3706 days) Posts: 1011 From: Edinburgh Joined: |
I've just had the latest newsletter from the primary school and it states that letters will no longer be sent to parents if headlice are detected in the school.
Now, as a parent, I find these letters invaluable beause it means that I step up my checks, much to the distress of my small son who hates them. Given that I'll no longer get a "heads-up" (pun unintended) and if I want to ensure that we avoid headlice, I'm going to have to increase my checking to the level of what I call "amber alert". So, as a family, we'll be on constant amber alert. The rationale behind this piece of lunacy is based on PCness and is to avoid stigmatising children. The instructions continue that if your child has headlice, you go along to the chemist, announce the infestation in public and you're given free nasty chemicals to get rid of them. And this avoids stigmatisation how, exactly? They advise
simultaneous thorough and adequate treatment of all confirmed cases with one of the standard chemical insecticide lotions....Make every effort to discourage unneccesary or inappropriate treatment with insecticides. Am I thick? How can you manage simultaneous treatment when the treatment is down to the parents and they won't let the parents know if and when there is an outbreak? In addition the active ingredient in the recommended treatment is an organoposphate, malathion. While in normal doses and irregular use this should have very few side effects it is known to cause teratogenic, mutagenic and carcinogenic effects in animal models. It's also been shown that a single dose can suppress the immune system. Now, I have nothing personal against malathion-based insecticides for headlice treatment and infact used it on the one instance where there was a mega outbreak at school. I do, however, have a problm with using it as frequently as we will have to if the powers that be get away with this. They point out that parents are the first line of defence, then jam our radar. On top of this they then have the audacity to suggest that reccurring or persistent infestations may be due to parental neglect!!! They actually state
Repeated headlice infection may be symptomatic of other family stresses or neglect (boggle icon mine) They go on to say, and this is the part that really took my breath away
If a child presents with consistent or repeated headlice infection despite information and support to parents to treat the recurring headlice infection, health professionals and school staff should jointly consider what action to take next. If the family is experiencing difficulties which prevent the parents from treating the headlice infection effectively, they may need additional or special help from the health service or local authority social work services at home. The Children (Scotland) Act 1995 requires the local authority to safeguard and promote the welfare of children in need, with the assistance of other agencies, including health services To be honest, I don't think I can type enough boggle icons to express my disbelief at this statement. I've posted this in Coffee house because it's a Coffee house topic and I'd appreciate some input. Am I getting this entirely wrong? I hope I am, because I wouldn't like to think that my take on the policy (that it will encourage the spread of headlice) was correct. Any takers?
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bluescat48 Member (Idle past 4190 days) Posts: 2347 From: United States Joined: |
To me it seems that they had the right idea in the first place until they decided to go with the evil idea of "political correctness."
There is no better love between 2 people than mutual respect for each other
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teen4christ Member (Idle past 5799 days) Posts: 238 Joined: |
Trixie writes
quote:Have you considered giving your child/children a buzz haircut that's 1/2 inch long?
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CK Member (Idle past 4128 days) Posts: 3221 Joined: |
quote: Believe it or not, in some UK schools, such a haircut would get your child suspended until his hair grew back...
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PaulK Member Posts: 17822 Joined: Member Rating: 2.2 |
That sounds nuts. How can sending letters stigmatise a child ? Or were they being cheap and having the kids take the letters home ?
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Trixie Member (Idle past 3706 days) Posts: 1011 From: Edinburgh Joined: |
He has that anyway, with the Mohican look in the middle. He's 7, going on 16 . I'm lucky he's a boy, my friend has three long-haired daughters. On "amber" alert she has to spend 9 hours a week combing through the hair of very distrssed and upset girls since it is painful when you have long hair, I know, I have longish hair and it's very unpleasant going through it with a fine-toothed comb. Primary school kids don't tend to co-operate with painful procedures.
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Trixie Member (Idle past 3706 days) Posts: 1011 From: Edinburgh Joined: |
Yes, the kids brought the letters home, but if a single case was found, previously every cild in the school got a letter, not just those in the same class. I don't see how this could stigmatise anyone? No-one knew who the child was, except the parents of said child, since they were usually the ones to inform the school in the first place. The child in question would also be given the exact same letter at the exact same time as the rest of the school so that there was no way to identify the child.
To be honest, and I know this sounds daft, every time the dreaded letter came out, there was almost a Blitz-like spirit as the mothers of the community laughed together at the antics of their children in trying to avoid the dreaded combings. Given that we all knew we were in it together, parents were open with each other when their child got headlice and would warn other parents. Now, courtesy of these idiotic ideas, parents are being told that it is a stigma so it won't be announced in a letter. And this is their attempt at removing a stigma that was, until now, not a stigma!!! Sheesh! The hilarious thing is that there is a picture of Malcolm Chisholm (one of the MSPs from the Scottish Executive responsible for this piece of nonsense) on the front of the Guidance Document and he's as bald as a coot
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NosyNed Member Posts: 8996 From: Canada Joined: |
I had about 3 bouts of imported lice from day cares.
I found a good strong vacuum worked very well. Suck 'em up a couple of times a day and they are gone in a generational cycle.
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Chiroptera Inactive Member |
Me, I say at the first signs of an outbreak, shave the heads of every single one of the little cretins. That should stop any outbreak in its tracks.
Spare a thought for the stay-at-home voter; His empty eyes gaze at strange beauty shows And a parade of the gray suited grafters: A choice of cancer or polio. -- The Rolling Stones
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Trixie Member (Idle past 3706 days) Posts: 1011 From: Edinburgh Joined: |
Neat ideas! If I use my vaccuum on my child's head, it's liable to suck him up as I bought a good strong one for vaccuuming up coal (don't ask). That could solve a whole myriad of problems for me although it will likely give rise to a whole set of interesting new ones.
The shaving heads idea I like, but it might not go down so well the the mothers of some of the "Ikkle Princesses". Would give a whole new look to the annual torture that is known as the Nativity Play. As an aside, my son's line in the school Nativity was (they were spelling out the word Christmas) "M is for the Three Kings from the East"! I damned near fell out of my chair laughing!
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arachnophilia Member (Idle past 1344 days) Posts: 9069 From: god's waiting room Joined: |
The rationale behind this piece of lunacy is based on PCness and is to avoid stigmatising children. tell me you've seen the southpark episode.
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Trixie Member (Idle past 3706 days) Posts: 1011 From: Edinburgh Joined: |
Do you have a link to it? I'm like to see that, but sadly, I've never been a bg Southpark fan, if only cos i never had the time?
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NosyNed Member Posts: 8996 From: Canada Joined: |
Me, I say at the first signs of an outbreak, shave the heads of every single one of the little cretins. That should stop any outbreak in its tracks. and no one is singled out. Very PC.
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Chiroptera Inactive Member |
And it teaches them about the ephemeral nature of beauty, too!
Spare a thought for the stay-at-home voter; His empty eyes gaze at strange beauty shows And a parade of the gray suited grafters: A choice of cancer or polio. -- The Rolling Stones
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teen4christ Member (Idle past 5799 days) Posts: 238 Joined: |
CK writes
quote:Um, why?
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