Are You Itchy?

Friends of mine said," What did they do? Tell you after you stuck your hand up?"Actually I didn't have to stick my hand up at all. Not many people were brave enough to do so. It's so not the most glamorous of volunteer jobs. In fact its down right creepy. But as the saying goes, "It's a dirty job, and someone has to do it."

That some one over the last few years has been my neighbour and friend, Jo. She has organised volunteers, researched the problem, and has contacted the appropriate authorities to help with the problem. When most people would have backed away, at the very mention of it, Jo has been there willing. I truly admire her character for this, and thus I felt it was high time I joined her in the fight against head lice at our school.

Head lice, unfortunately is not considered a heath issue, Jo was politely informed by the local Heath nurse, but rather a nuisance like dandruff. Though they have a disgusting stigma attached to them that gives an itchy meaning to the phrase "Bite me!", no one has actually died from having lice crawling over their scalp. Even if we had an epidemic on our hands, the health nurse wasn't about to come out of her office.

There was five of us who dedicated our Friday morning to this unsightly task.We hung up our coats in the school office, rolled up our sleeves, sprayed on extra hairspray, and filled our pockets with Popsicle sticks. (Lice like clean heads of hair, and products like hairspray, and gel deter them. Drops of tee tree oil in your shampoo has been known to do the same) We rallied in the School foyer after the bell rang and Jo laid down the attack plan: We were checking from class to class, Ask the child if you can look at their head. We were debriefed on how to look for the little suckers; look behind the ears, the nape of the neck, base of the crown. It kind of looks like dandruff, but dandruff flakes away. Lice won't move, or they will crawl away on their own. The eggs are stuck like glue to the hair follicle. And what ever you do, try to keep a poker face. Do not under any circumstances say out loud that the girl /boy you've just checked has lice, get their name or remember what they are wearing and tell Jo after we've left the room.

As we went from room to room obeying the rules of anonymity as best we could, our very presence let the children know that indeed there was a problem. Someone among them had lice. There was a stigma, and that unfortunate person would be ostracized for a long time. Children were on the look out for reaction on our faces, or a double check of someones hair.Those that were nervous about having their hair analysed almost always had an infestation.

As I sifted through one nervous boy's hair, he was itchy, and asked me constantly about lice. I could not believe what I saw. I was literally stunned. I thought only Hollywood special effects could make such creepy crawly suckers, come alive. Now I know where they got their inspiration. I memorized his clothes, walked away and caught a glimpse of disgust flash across the faces of his closest classmates. I suddenly felt sorry for him. It may not be a heath issue, but for a preteen like him, it was about to become a psychological one. Unfortunately, the answer wasn't quite as simple as a wash or two with "Head and Shoulders" shampoo.

I had two showers and washed my hair twice when I reached home. I couldn't get rid of the itchy sensation on my skin. I spent the rest of the day cleaning the house and trying to forget what I saw. At dinner time Carpenter asked how my day was and from my reaction he said, "Guess we're not having rice?"