The skinny on lice

Byram - They do not jump. They do not fly. They crawl. From coat to coat. From head to head. From pillow to pillow. But not from dog to kid. They are lice, and they are on the minds of school nurses (and the heads of children), many of whom say winter is the worst season. Of course, some think the warmer months bring more problems, with sleepover camps. You see, lice have been around for millennia, and while we know how to treat them, we don’t know very much about where they come from. “You get it from someone you are exposed to” who has lice, explained Maria Garrera, the nurse at Franklin Elementary School. But who did that person get it from? Well, as the Ogdensburg School’s Michele Block put it, “Where did the first chicken come from?” Just because we don’t know when or where they will strike, doesn’t we can’t be prepared. And school nurses are nothing if not prepared. Donna Gallagher, the nurse at the Alpine School in Sparta, gives handouts to parents, explaining what lice look like, how to look for them and the discouraging the sorts of behaviors that allow them to spread. Hardyston Elementary’s Amy Shea said that students learn about lice and how to prevent an outbreak in their health classes. At Byram Lakes Elementary, some classes keep their coats in plastic bags during the winter, and on the backs of their chairs, according to Barbara Scholl, the nurse there. Garrera makes sure that teachers refer students to her who are itching their heads. Block performs surprise checks, and is careful not to warn her students. “People get used to being checked,” she explained and may alter their behavior if they know a check is coming. She especially worries that in preparation for a check, a parent might preemptively wash a child’s hair with a lice-killing shampoo. While the shampoos are necessary, nurses point out that they are made of toxic chemicals, and should be used sparingly and with caution. Block encourages parents to have their children checked by a professional, before beginning any treatment. When a case is found, however, it is important that the shampoos are used exactly as instructed. Washing hair too soon after use, adding another product to hair, or breaking the cycle in some other way, “can invalidate the treatment,” according to Block. In such cases, lice may develop a resistance to the chemical, and a new chemical must be employed. The most important part of the process is removing nits from the hair by hand. Block mentioned a new product that would turn nits neon pink. The spray will help parents identify the lice eggs, but the removal is still “tedious,” according to Debbie Fisher of the Wantage School. All nurses check students for nits for up to two weeks after they are treated. Once a case has been identified, nurses also check anyone that child was in contact with. In younger grades, when children stay in one classroom, the whole class is checked. In grades when students switch classes, the entire grade might be checked. The circle even widens from there, though: Anyone on the child’s bus is checked; all siblings are checked; and all students in contact with siblings are checked. Shea said that siblings are the most likely to also have a case of lice of all those checked, but all nurses said that it was rare to find another case, even after all the screenings. Children “get the heebie jeebies” about lice, said Garrera, but she stressed that there was no need to; a swift, thorough treatment should clear them up, and there was no reason to be embarrassed about something that could happen to anyone. “You could get it anywhere,” said Block. “A movie theater, a restaurant, going on a train ride, all these cloth seats.” Nurses are discrete when they find a case and are careful to ensure that the student’s classmates don’t know who is infested. “We’ve learned not to isolate the child,” said Block, as had been the case in the past. Just as no one is sure where the first louse came from, few are sure how many will come this year. “Some years there are more than others,” said Scholl. “We don’t really know why.”