A petition calling for policy changes on how head lice cases are handled at one of the city’s school boards is nearing 500 signatures.
A concerned parent launched the petition, claiming her child experienced head lice four times in less than three months. Her testimony describes the child’s scalp damage that happened as a result of treatment, and she blames the Thunder Bay Catholic District School Board’s head lice policy for the ordeal.
The petition calls on the board to reinstate its former policy, which kept children with head lice out of school until they were cleared to return.
The board’s lice policy was passed in 2013 and is scheduled for renewal in 2018. It doesn’t immediately send students home when lice are discovered but can exclude children from classes if guardians are not effectively treating lice.
Comments among the petition’s online signatories include, “kids should be sent home if they have lice. Why risk other kids having to deal with it as well” and “it is ridiculous to send children back while still infected. Shameful.”
But Catholic board superintendent Omer Belisle believes the parents are misinformed about the policy.
“Those procedures are very clear for us,” he said. “We think of the student first. We think of student dignity. We take that approach, which is a children’s rights approach. “
While Belisle said lice has been confirmed in some students, he considers the current situation similar to those faced in all school boards that tend to occur in September, January and March.
He added that he understands the discomfort among parents, but added he hasn’t received a single call complaining about the board’s approach.
“I’m not surprised because I know they’re frustrated. I know when the identification and outbreaks happen, it’s very costly at times so it doesn’t surprise me but we think we’ve addressed fairly in our policy how to consider the dignity of the child and also that we’re not enabling any outbreaks or the spread of it.”
