Itching to fix a lice problem

RATHDRUM - There's a lot of nit picking going on with staff and families of Betty Kiefer Elementary, but that's OK.

It's permissible this time because they're itching to fix a problem.

Lice, generally a wintertime concern at schools when kids are wearing stocking hats and cramming coats in closets, has been an issue at the Rathdrum school this spring.

"I've never seen it as bad as this year," said Principal Lisa Sexton, who has been at the school as a teacher or administrator since it opened in 1994. "At one point, someone in every classroom had it."

But Sexton believes the problem has now been reduced to a few isolated cases since the school recently had a three-day weekend, sprays have been used each night after students go home and with regular vacuuming.

"Lice can only live 24-48 hours without a human host and nobody was here for three days," said Sexton, referring to the weekend of May 18. "We talked about fumigating and the district was prepared to pay for the cost, but when we did the research, the lice should've been dead over the three-day weekend."

The district also believed going the natural route with the long weekend would be better for the students than fumigating the entire building.

However, Dan Loeffler, who has grandchildren who attend the school, said the problem persists, including on the homefront where his family has spent $400 on supplies to get rid of the problem.

He said he and his daughters' homes get cleaned up, his family gets rid of the problem on their bodies, only to have it return when the kids come home from school. It's a vicious circle, he said, that can't seem to be stopped and has been going on for a month.

"It's a horrible, ongoing thing," he said. "My daughters are beside themselves. It's been rough on all of us. They need to shut the school down for a day and do something about it."

His family has even gone as far as wearing shower caps around the house and having the kids sleep in one room, hoping the lice won't spread.

Sexton said she doesn't believe the students are still getting the lice at school. She said students who either have nits or live lice in their hair are immediately sent home, per district policy, but students haven't had to be sent home in recent days.

"I feel badly for our parents," Sexton said. "There's a lot of work to get rid of it. It can be stressful because every time somebody in a classroom or grade level gets it, a letter is sent home to keep an eye out.

"But students are no longer getting re-infected at school because nobody else in their classes have it."

Sexton said the problem may have stemmed from a warm spring in which kids were sharing their helmets for bike rides to school.

Jeff Lee, an epidemiologist with the Panhandle Health District, said his agency doesn't intervene with head lice because it doesn't involve a disease and lice can be treated with over-the-counter remedies. However, the district is available to answer questions.

"Closing schools will not remediate the problem," Lee said. "It has to be done at home with nit picking - using combs to get the nits out and with treatment shampoo."

Lee said lice isn't related to how clean an environment is.

"Lice is an equal opportunity colonizer - they don't care what your socioeconomic status is," he said. "But it can be really tedious to deal with."

Lice has only been a serious problem at Betty Kiefer, not at other Lakeland schools and in the Coeur d'Alene and Post Falls districts, according to sources.