Head lice problem not new in area elementary schools
By ALICE POPOVICI
The Daily News
Sunday, March 2, 2008
BULLHEAD CITY - Head lice isn't a new problem in elementary schools.
But treating the parasites can be difficult and costly, especially for low-income families, said Bernadette Pires, regional coordinator for Communities in Schools. She runs the Weekend Hunger Program, which provides backpacks full of ready-to-eat food to underprivileged students at Mountain View Elementary School, Fort Mohave Elementary School and William Bennett Elementary School in Laughlin.
After learning of the problem from nurses at the three schools, Pires said she went to local drug stores to buy lice treatment kits, and found that prices ranged from $12 to $25. And for some families, that money would have to come out of the food budget, she said.
"So I think that's where a lot of the problems come in, too - they couldn't afford to treat them," Pires said. Children can get head lice from a bus seat, a couch or simply leaning in too close to another child, said Vivian O'Kane, school nurse at Mountain View. And the likelihood increases with the warmer weather and children spending more time outside.
"It's not a great number of kids that we do find," O'Kane said. During a recent check she only found two students out of 317 had lice.
But having lice is an embarrassing problem for the child and the treatment requires a time commitment from the parent.
"It is a very tedious job to try to get those out," O'Kane said.
Once the nurse determines a child has lice, they are sent home and not permitted to return until the problem has been resolved. Treatment means not only shampooing the hair to kill the lice, but also using a fine-toothed comb to brush out the nits, or remaining eggs.
O'Kane also recommends using a spray on the home furniture.
Thanks to money donated by the Foresters Branch Mohave club and a box of lice kits donated by Wal-Mart, the three schools Pires services have enough supplies.
"It's an ongoing problem and at least we're addressing it," Pires said.
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