# Warning -- This is a rant (and kind of gross)



## SLFarmMI (Feb 21, 2013)

Why do parents insist on sending their children to school with something contagious? I'm not talking the normal stuff like colds.

Had a kid come to school today with scabies. And his parents knew he had it last week and still sent him to school last week and today. AAARGH! And this is not an isolated incident. This is not even the first case of scabies in the building this year but the first of my kids. Parents send their kids to school with ringworm, impetigo, lice (live bugs not just nits) no matter how many times we tell them to not send them with contagious things. 

Normally, I take it all in stride but the ick factor of scabies is getting to me today.


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## dizzy (Jun 25, 2013)

Do both parents work? Might be that they have no place to put the child while they were at work and couldn't afford to stay home nor pay for child care.

I'm not saying that what they did was right-my son got extremely ill when he was an infant when someone brought their sick kid to church and stuck him in the nursery, but sometimes there's more to the story than what meets the eye.

And it's not just sending the kids to school. How many adults go to work when they're sick? Much of it is due to the economy. I know if my hubby doesn't go to work, he doesn't get paid. He has to be extremely ill to miss.


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## Lisa in WA (Oct 11, 2004)

SLFarmMI said:


> Why do parents insist on sending their children to school with something contagious? I'm not talking the normal stuff like colds.
> 
> Had a kid come to school today with scabies. And his parents knew he had it last week and still sent him to school last week and today. AAARGH! And this is not an isolated incident. This is not even the first case of scabies in the building this year but the first of my kids. Parents send their kids to school with ringworm, impetigo, lice (live bugs not just nits) no matter how many times we tell them to not send them with contagious things.
> 
> Normally, I take it all in stride but the ick factor of scabies is getting to me today.



I would be ranting too. :grump: That's just awful.


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## SLFarmMI (Feb 21, 2013)

Neither of this particular kid's parents were at work Dizzy. They were both at home today. If I recall correctly, the stepfather isn't working at all. In fact, I had just spoken to the mother on the phone about something at 8:30 this morning. No mention to the school either last week or today about scabies.


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## dizzy (Jun 25, 2013)

If neither of the parents were at work, then they should have kept the kid home. There's no excuse then. Sounds like they just didn't want to be bothered.


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## Wendy (May 10, 2002)

Maybe they didn't know it was scabies. My daughter had it not so long ago & I had no idea. She didn't tell me that she had been itching until she had it for a few weeks. Apparently her friend had it earlier & that is probably where she got it. It's not as contagious as you think. Only one of the other kids ended up with it here. So, she had been going to school with it because I had no idea she even had it.


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## SLFarmMI (Feb 21, 2013)

When asked why he was itching so badly, the kid said "My mom says I have bugs under my skin" so I'm pretty sure they knew. My rant was because parents are repeatedly sending their kids to school with all sorts of things like scabies, ringworm, lice, etc. when they KNOW they have them. I don't want to catch any of this stuff and I'm fairly sure the parents of the other children don't want their kids to catch it either. So far I've been lucky in not catching any of it but other teachers haven't been so lucky.


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## Tango (Aug 19, 2002)

it took me 2-3 weeks to realize what i had was scabies and another 5-6 weeks to cure myself of it. though it has the label of being a sexually transmitted disease it is also transmitted through prolonged skin contact with fabric from someone who has it or just recently had it- the mites can't live without a human host for very long. i got it during an overnight stay at a motel. it's agonizing to put it mildly so my first response is compassion for the student who is at the other end of a tangential rant. it takes a long time to feel improvement in the itching after treatment starts. and treatment requires intensive hot water hygenic laundering nightly. the entire time i had it i couldn't help but feel compassion for all of those who had it and weren't able to deal with it as focused and intensively as i could due to the help of a wonderful friend.


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## SLFarmMI (Feb 21, 2013)

Tango, my rant was not directed toward the student. I feel nothing but sympathy for him. He was scratching himself raw and looked absolutely miserable. My rant is toward the parents who know their kid has something contagious and 1) don't tell the school so we can take precautions and/or disinfect as needed and 2) send the kid to school before they are medically cleared.


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## Wendy (May 10, 2002)

I agree with you. I hate when people KNOW their child is sick, but still sends them. My poor sister had to deal with lice on her child. She would get it, they would get rid of it, she would go back to school & get it again. She would call the school & they acted like it wasn't a big deal. The nurse said people in 3rd world countries live with it all the time & they no longer called parents to let them know someone had it.

In my opinion, if someone has lice in a class, every parent of kids in that class should be called & told. Every kid should be checked form that class & kept home until they are nit free.

I would not have sent my daughter had I known what it was. Her treatment wasn't bad. She had to apply a cream from her neck down over her entire body & leave it on overnight. Wash it off the next day & I laundered her bedding.That was it & it went away.

Seems most people don't care about the misery they put others through when they spread their illness. I never send my kid to school if they have a fever or even if they complain of a stomache ache. It won't hurt them to miss a day or two.


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## Tango (Aug 19, 2002)

I understand. The motel I stayed at had a reputation for "bed bugs" but I didn't know about it. It seemed very clean, actually. They are renting rooms and spreading infection. When I recovered and went to tell them, they knew what I was saying. I thought I was going to help them and I saw that they already knew they had a serious problem. Probably couldn't afford to close down... they were trying but couldn't eliminate it.

I don't know about these parents or the school but I sympathize with your frustration. Sometimes when I read things like this about a child, I see a parent with addiction or mental illness in the background. The child carries the burden of the infection, the extreme discomfort, the alienation... without much recourse him or herself. Scabies needs a prolonged and intensive treatment. It hasn't been year since my infection yet and it is fresh in mind, leaving my immune system weak. I wouldn't want my child in the situation you find your children in but I can't help think that if the parent knew what she is dealing with and doesn't do anything, she has a problem and if she doesnt know what she is dealing with she needs education and help. In my last rural district, there was a teacher that went to students who couldn't attend school for a time - it was called homebound program. Maybe that is something to suggest for the duration of the treatment in this case?


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## backwoods (Sep 12, 2004)

Whatever happened to the school calling the parents and saying, "Come get your child, they have so & so, and need to be seen and then released by the Dr. before coming back to school?" Schools used to do that all the time.


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## SLFarmMI (Feb 21, 2013)

backwoods said:


> Whatever happened to the school calling the parents and saying, "Come get your child, they have so & so, and need to be seen and then released by the Dr. before coming back to school?" Schools used to do that all the time.


Yes, we do that, but it only works if 1) the parents have a working phone number (many of our parents buy those prepaid phones and when they are out of minutes, poof, the phone no longer works and the number is no longer valid), 2) the parents see on their caller id that it is the school and actually pick up (we have lots of parents that avoid our phone calls) and 3) they actually come and get their kid (many times the poor kid is sitting sick in the office all afternoon waiting for their parent who "will be there in 10 minutes" -- who knew 10 minutes lasted from 2:00 to 4:00. We've also had many parents who when told to come get their kid told us no, they had things to do and the kid was our problem.


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## Wendy (May 10, 2002)

Wow! Just wow! What kind of parent doesn't pick up a sick child?? I did that once, but I had a good excuse, I was in the hospital delivering my youngest. 

At the beginning of the year, we are supposed to fill out a paper of where our child is to go if there is an early dismissal. We had an early dismissal Friday & my daughter said you wouldn't believe the kids that were trying to get ahold of their parents because they didn't know where they were supposed to go. I am really amazed at teh lack of parenting by a lot of people. I always make sure to fill everything out & also make sure not to send my kids to school if they even feel the least bit sick.


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## dizzy (Jun 25, 2013)

When my kids were little, I had my parents listed as an emergency contact so they had someone to get them if I couldn't. I know parents can't always get them, but isn't there any other family member or neighbor that can? I was the emergency contact for any number of kids in the neighborhood for years.


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## SLFarmMI (Feb 21, 2013)

"Wow! Just wow! What kind of parent doesn't pick up a sick child?? I did that once, but I had a good excuse, I was in the hospital delivering my youngest.

At the beginning of the year, we are supposed to fill out a paper of where our child is to go if there is an early dismissal. We had an early dismissal Friday & my daughter said you wouldn't believe the kids that were trying to get ahold of their parents because they didn't know where they were supposed to go. I am really amazed at teh lack of parenting by a lot of people. I always make sure to fill everything out & also make sure not to send my kids to school if they even feel the least bit sick."

"When my kids were little, I had my parents listed as an emergency contact so they had someone to get them if I couldn't. I know parents can't always get them, but isn't there any other family member or neighbor that can? I was the emergency contact for any number of kids in the neighborhood for years."

Wendy and Dizzy, these things used to amaze me but not any more. In the neighborhood I teach in, school just isn't considered important. For some reason, things this year are just getting to me and I honestly don't know if I have another 15 years (until retirement) in me in that district. I was hoping to move to another district once we moved to the farm (even though I would lose everything I've worked for and have to start over). I almost cried yesterday when DH said I'd have to stay for another few years so we'd have enough money to restore the barn.


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## GREENCOUNTYPETE (Jul 25, 2006)

that is just wrong, i homeschool my kids and have picked up kids who didnt feel well at dropped them at home, if mom was out.

I also had a 2nd grader in school last spring, and her locker mate turned up with lice. We checked her over and washed her stuff. It drove me crazy because they had only called one of the three class rooms to tell them about the lice, even though they were switching all of the 2nd graders in and out of class rooms for math lessons.


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## Melissa (Apr 15, 2002)

I am always upset about people going out in public or even working at jobs where there is constant public contact and they are sick. If you are sick, stay home and get better!!! And especially children, they can't learn if they don't feel good.


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## Wendy (May 10, 2002)

> I know parents can't always get them, but isn't there any other family member or neighbor that can


I had my mom down as the second contact, but she was at the hospital with me because my husband was working. She drove me & stayed with me until he got there.


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## teachermom44 (Feb 8, 2012)

I actually outsmarted a mom who doesn't answer her phone when she sees the school's number the other day. She was supposed to be at a SST meeting. So I called her phone got voice mail and left a message. I basically said "Hi, this is teachermom44 from ABC Elementary School. I'm calling about your daughter XXXX. The school's number is ******* and then I hung up. I left no information about why I was calling. Sure enough she called back about 5 minutes later. We then pressed her into having a conference right then on the phone and actually got her to come in the following Monday. Granted we had to meet with her at 730 am before school started, but it worked!

Our county doesn't notify parents about lice anymore either. They can have nits but not the live bugs. Either way it skeeves me out! And as much as I love the hugs the kids give me I cringe when they hug me when I'm sitting down and their head touches mine, especially if I know they have lice. I look goofy trying to move my head away at a weird angle, but ....after 15 years lice still makes me itch to even think about it. I'm itching now! LOL


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