Schools sweep students for lice

Kids are notorious germ swappers, and sharing head lice is no different.

To combat the crawling critters from taking over an elementary school classroom, some area school nurses run sweeps as a preventative measure and try to educate parents and students.

Lice come in three forms - nit, nymph and adult, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Health. The adult - a sesame-seed sized, six-legged parasitic insect ranging in color from tan to grayish-white - lays nits, which are tiny and can look like dandruff, and the nit hatches into a nymph, which feeds on blood and becomes an adult in about a week, the department's Web site states.

Dr. Roland Crevecoeur, who has his own pediatric and pediatric cardiology practice in Altoona, said lice is usually shared through direct head-to-head contact, but sharing items such as hats and combs or laying on an infected person's bed is discouraged.

Lice is a common problem that he comes across in his work, he said.

The American Academy of Pediatrics, the Department of Health and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention offer general guidelines for preventing the spread of lice, but to what extent can vary between school districts, he said.

Although he advises his patients to remove 90 to 95 percent of the nits, a no-nit policy is "extreme" and probably unnecessary, Crevecoeur said. He said head lice is common but is not a health hazard.

Crevecoeur does not recommend home remedies because there is no scientific proof of their effectiveness or what possible complications may occur, he said.

Watching how often and how much of the chemical treatments is used is important, he said. One treatment is often enough to get rid of the lice.

Chestnut Ridge School District's bull's-eye approach to combating head lice works, certified school nurse Denise Barkman said.

If Barkman and the other school district nurses come across a case of head lice, they keep checking kids within circles of contact until they come up empty-handed, she said.

Barkman said the school nurses check every elementary student during the first school week of the year. Doing so is preventative, she said.

The nurses also try to calm any fears a child may have.

"We try to make them not afraid of it," Barkman said.

The nurses also try to break the attached stigma.

"It's not a matter of whether the kids are clean or dirty," she said.

In the last several years, the Chestnut Ridge nurses have not come across a case of head lice, Barkman said. She said the state is trying to get rid of the no-nit policy and says it is acceptable for children to have some nits left in their hair when returning to school.

She said lice is not often passed among older students because they do not have as much contact as the younger ones.

The nurses try to partner with the parents in combating lice, she said.

Williamsburg school nurse Christine M. Detwiler said because the elementary school is small, nurses do a sweep in September and when the kids return from Christmas vacation in January.

Not all schools do sweeps, however.

Nurses "discreetly" monitor the children, Altoona Area School District nurse department chair Paula Dibert said.

The Altoona district does not do annual sweeps, but checks classrooms reporting a problem, she said.

Barkman and Dibert said they send kids home if live lice are found.

"We as a school, we monitor these kids," Dibert said. "We understand it is frustrating to parents."

Mirror Staff Writer Amanda Clegg is at 949-7030.