The Willow Glen Resident

Lice rear their ugly heads at Willow Glen Elementary

Officials say schools are not required to notify parents of uninfected children

By Christine M. Lias

Tiffany Williams does not mean to be a nit-picker, but she's fed up with head lice.

Williams has two children in Willow Glen Elementary School, one in kindergarten and one in second grade. When her kindergartner came home with head lice early last month, Williams was disgruntled that no notices were sent out and no other classes were given a heads-up about the problem, she said last week.

So she took care of the lice with medicated shampoo. But they came back.

Agitated, Williams asked the school if she could come in and check other kids for head lice. Someone in the district, whose name Williams cannot remember, told her that was against policy, she said.

Then a Willow Glen second-grade teacher called Williams a few weeks ago and said she herself had contracted lice. So Williams went to her classroom and checked the students' heads, finding that six children in the class had head lice.

Williams claims the itchy problem extends from kindergarten through third grade at Willow Glen, and that the district is sweeping it under the rug and not doing anything about it. But San Jose Unified School District spokesperson Maureen Munroe says the district has always taken an active role in dealing with head lice.

A nurse at Willow Glen Elementary did not return phone calls by press time, and school principal Lois Allen declined to comment, preferring to have communications go through the district office.

"It's really frustrating that nothing has been accomplished. I have to check my kids when they come home every day," Williams said. "It seems like [the district is] being deceptive, like it's trying to sweep this under the door."

Munroe said that the district does not have a "no-nit" policy, one in which parents would be notified if a son's or daughter's classmate has head lice.

If a nit, or louse, is found in a student's hair, the teacher will send a letter home to that child's parents with information on how to eliminate the bug. Schools are not required to send letters to the parents of the other children, she said.

If the family cannot afford the shampoo needed to combat lice, the district will provide it. A student can then be sent back into the classroom only after being checked by a health aide.

"We try to be tough, but it's a matter of what's reasonable," Munroe said. "We don't want the child to feel as if they're being punished."

But after using the shampoo-insecticide, "there may still be lice in the child's hair, but they are dead," she said.

Classrooms may then be vacuumed thoroughly. Children may have to keep coats and backpacks separated from one another. A pamphlet was published recently with information on dealing with head lice, although Munroe does not know if it has been distributed yet in Willow Glen schools.

"The reality is that lice are not necessarily contracted in the schools, only discovered," Munroe said. "Lice are not a health hazard, just a nuisance."

A recurring nuisance, that is.

Pediculus humanus capitis, the Latin name for the head louse, has been a plague in schools across the nation for years. A recent article in Time magazine states that every year, an estimated 10 million to 12 million Americans play host to the tiny insects that lay eggs on human scalps. Lice are relatively harmless but easily contracted--and a pest, to boot.

According to the Time article, permethrin, a drug widely used to kill lice, may not be as successful as it once was. A generation of children who have used shampoos containing permethrin, such as one with the brand name Rit, may have given rise to chemical-resistant lice.

"Lice are a pain in the butt," Williams said. "You have to look through a head of hair to find just one."

Munroe agrees that the louse deserves its unpopularity. "Typically the problem is associated with poverty or something dirty. But lice can affect anyone. It happens every year in the schools," she said.

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