Do I have a word with the teacher dilemma

[moomoo1967]

Hi, ok so DD's school is a nightmare for nits.... I regularly comb through her hair, every other day in fact with conditioner. I have tried everything else, chemical treatments, natural treatment, tea tree oil, lemon juice, white wine vinegar but to no avail.
Anyway she came home from school the other day and said that her teacher had pulled her out of class and told her she had seen a louse in her hair and had tried to get it out of her hair. When my dd went back into class all the other kids were saying " oooo what did you get told off about". Now I was under the impression that no teacher is permitted to single out a child like that, that if it was noticed a child had nits that they had to send a letter to the whole school. Something about it being against their human rights etc etc but I also thought that a teacher shouldn't be trying to get the lice out of my dd's hair. All she had to do was mention it to me if she really wanted to.
Am I right in thinking she was in the wrong ?
I would like to go in and speak to the school but want to get my facts straight first !

Perhaps she shouldn't have done it but do you think she just saw louse crawling and just thought ooh I could just pick that one out.. She possibly didn't think it through?!

She didn't 'single her out' by announcing the louse in front of the entire class - teachers 'single kids out' all the time to talk to them in private about work, including to praise them - I wouldn't say anything.

Try Hedrin, make sure you apply the follow up application exactly when it says to do so and tie hair back, keep it short and explain to her how touching heads allows the lice to spread.

Possibly but then she could be putting herself in a very precarious position. At Dd's last school one of the nursery workers was accused of assault for trying to do just that. Just not sure if I should say anything, my dd doesn't want me to

I have literally tried everything on the market Blu, Hedrin, Full Marks, everything. They just seem to love her hair

i wouldnt. i think you are being over sensitive

I don't think that the teacher did anything wrong.

I don't know if it's just our school or if this is the generally accepted way of doing it, but if we are informed by a parent that a child has nits, or if we suspect that they do, even if they've been treated for it, a letter goes out to all of the parents in the class. If you can actually see nits moving in the child's hair, without touching them, then you ring the parents and ask them to come and collect the child from school immediately. We don't ever actually try and get them out ourselves.

On the lice front, when you have got rid of them try vosene kids 3in1 shampoo and hair spray. It is a general use shampoo/spray which seems to keep nits at bay. As for talking to the teacher - you could mention your daughter was embarrassed, but perhaps not in front of dd [!].

Yes I use the Nitty Gritty BluddyMoFo

wow pinkgirlythoughts, if my dd's school did that, they wouldn't have any children in the classrooms, it really is a nightmare. The only time she is totally free is in the school holidays

Nitty Gritty comb with cheap conditioner or if you are desperate oil left on the head for half an hour.

Surely it is better that the teacher removes then nit than asks you to come and get them immediately. That is singling the child out.

I think that is really odd behaviour from the teacher. I mean GROSS! I would never dream of removing headlice from a pupil's head.

But maybe it was just big and juicy and sqidgey and had to be tweaked out..... probably took self control from teacher to take her from room first!

I understand you may be seething, but suggest leaving it. It just puts it more and more under the spotlight. Are any of the other parents having the same problem with nits? I bet you're not alone.. I personally don't think the teacher should have done this (and it was a kind of pointless exercise, too.) Is she a mother herself? It's the kind of thing I'd do to my own child, but not someone else's.

My DD1 went through a phase of being absolutely infested, no matter what I did. Turned out the nursery were letting the kids share hats in summer. Idiots. I've heard the best thing is just to put loads and loads of condition on freshly shampooed hair, leave it for a fair while (15 mins?) and then use a metal nit comb. (Works best if your DC is sitting watching telly, they get v bored as it always needs doing more than once.)

Good luck, I hate my DDs being singled out too. Kids en masse can be v thoughtless.

conditioner, even.

Thanks for all your comments and lol to OffToNarnia

As I have very thick hair and my daughter and son have inherited the same gene, when They go nits I too became infested with them.

However throught trial and error here is my best advice.

I x nit comb
Damp Kitchen Roll
Hair conditioner ( not too runny)

Day 1 Wet Day
Wash your CYP hair and cover in conditioner. Section the hair and comb through washing the comb between sections.

Day 2- Dry Day
Seat CYP infront of TV (as the next part can take a while). In daylight (so you can see better) take a small part of the hair and from the root, go through it with the nit comb (for the live ones) and then (this is the bit you need to be quite hardy for) the same bit of hair go through it again (with your hands) if you see anything attached to the hair strand its likely to be a nit egg/shell. If your child can bare it remove the hair strand or using your thumb and second finger remove the egg by sliding it down the hairstrand. Wipe your fingers on the damp kitchen roll and you will see a black speck on there (that will be the shell or a newly laid nit!)

This sound yukey but it really works.

You carry on having alternative wet and dry days for 2 weeks and that should break the cycle. Happing nit hunting!

I think the teacher probably thought it would be more embarrassing for everyone to see the louse crawling over her head. By removing it in private she spared her feelings!

aargghh.... after feeling smug about my always nit free 5 year old have just checked his head. In bath covered in conditioner...great.. thanks for advice here!!!

pinkgirlythoughts, that's the routine in our local schools too.
No, we don't check for lice by touching heads at all. The OP has perfectly encapsulated why, yes it would count as invasive and assault and whatever, yes some parents would complain and no teacher wants to go through all that because of a louse.
The children tend to know who is permanently infested without any teacher input.

fingers crossed after very laborious wet combing over the weekend, DD had one very lonesome louse in her hair last night. Well did have

I'm with hocuspontas on this.
If spotted by another child, it might have been announced to the entire playground/class, and been extremely embarrassing.. You know how children can be.

Nits LOVE me, i manage to catch them whenever DDs class has them despite DD not getting them...

The only thing that works for me is Derbac M, it smells like pure chemical evil but leaves me louse free in one application :-P

And to answer your actual question - I wouldnt much care about a teacher attempted to remove a louse from my daughter as long as she wasnt upset.
Do you have a home/school book or reading diary you could put a note in about it?

We've been lucky and only had two cases in YR. My Dsd recommended Tee tree Oil and combing out. It's really gentle, unlike the toxic heavy chemical products advertised, and works immediately.

My Ds reception teacher had no end of problems last year and I agree with hocuspontas that what she did was kind. She also told us that one little girl used to come to her own Dd class crawling with lice nearly every day so all the children would get infected over and over despite the mother having been informed.

The only word ds got wrong in his first ever spelling test was 'like' and he spelt it 'lice'. (Had probably seen it many times on school information posters !