Headlights!!!

These days I play Cootie with my granddaughters. I used to play more seriously.

HEADLIGHTS!!!

Well that is what my son and daughter originally thought I was saying when I told them about my day.

I wish I could say I never had to deal with head lice, but the reality is it is part of being an elementary principal. You see, when you are the elementary principal, you are the only backup for the school nurse. You usually only see the nurse a day or two each week, if you are lucky. Rarely is the nurse assigned to your school on the day you need to “check heads”.

High School principals never really understand the elementary principal. With multiple assistant administrators, layers of administrative support including, secretaries, hall monitors, lead teachers, a counseling department, resource officer and a full time nurse, they don’t understand why elementary principals can get so stressed. After all, they think all we do is wipe noses.

Why did I hate the day after vacation? Head lice. Why did it hate to see baseball, softball begin? head lice. Why did I have to transport kids home in my car? head lice. Why did I stop and itch my head while typing this?…you guess.

The protocol for controlling head lice, was to check everyone who had contact with a student when the little creatures are discovered. This meant checking all of the siblings, all of the class members, and if the sibling had evidence of lice, you checked that class too.

While all of this checking was going on, education was not going on. The class usually had to wait in the hall outside of the nurse’s office. After so much lost time, teachers started having their students bring books to read. I called it "Reading by the Lice Light". Each student was checked under an intense light which sent the little bugs scurrying. The bright light also revealed the translucent eggs (nits) attached to the hair shaft in the warmer part of the head (base of neck and around the ears).

Why do I know all of this? I didn’t before I became an elementary principal. I would bet most high school principals have no idea. Scratched my head again. When the nurse was not available, I had to check.  In order to become "trained" the nurse ran a little clinic for me. Of course the training included a student who had a few of the critters re-arranging their hairstyle. What fun!

After infected students were located, they had to go home and be treated with lice killing shampoo. Their clothes were to be cleaned and dried at high temperature. All of their bedding, and toys were also to be cleaned.That which couldn’t be washed was to be sprayed and vacuumed. It is a long arduous process. Removing nits is difficult and painful for the child and frustrating for the parent.  This "nit picking" was not about someone being fussy.  

Readmission to school required another head check and proof of treatment even though nits remained. Frankly most parents won’t do all the cleaning if they experience head lice more than once. I addition, they get really angry if their children get it again. Guess how I know that!

Maybe I should write a song or two about my experience? One song could be "You Lice Up My Life".  Nope, not funny even 20+ years later.

In a neighborhood where nearly everyone worked or had little or no transportation, the task of transporting infested students fell to the principal. The students I transported sat in the same seat that my son and daughter sat in whenever I took them someplace.

To protect my family, I placed garbage bags on the back seat and covered the entire seat. When I returned to school, the garbage bags were removed and discarded. Fortunately my kids never picked up the little critters from my car. 

However, they did squirm whenever I told them we had headlights today!