Lice Reminders

Dear 25th Year HST Families, We have 1 family who is treating their child for lice. The family caught it right away so there is very little chance anyone else in HST has or will be exposed. However, our policy is to notify our families so that precautions and reminders can be shared with all students.
First some helpful facts to know:
– Lice is not indicative of poor hygiene, in fact it appears to be the opposite with lice preferring clean heads. – Lice do not jump or fly. That means they cannot “leap” from one student to another. There needs to be direct contact. – Lice do not move quickly outside of human hair/scalp. Therefore if they are on a piece of clothing that touches another piece of clothing briefly – they cannot quickly move from one to the other. The items would need to be lying together for a period of time for the transfer to happen. – Lice eggs have a 2 week gestation period. Once an egg hatches, the lice will die in 45 minutes if it does not have contact with human skin.
Prevention steps you can take:
– *Check your student’s head for nits.* Even though there is very little chance anyone in HST has been exposed, it is good to normalize checking for nits. It’s a preventative thing to do, just like brushing teeth. – *If you ever do discover lice, please email us to let us know.* This information will be kept private but the level of preventative steps taken by HST depends on the number of active cases. – You can purchase holistic repellents. – Lice do not like Tea Tree Oil which can be found in some shampoos. One product that has Tea Tree Oil is “Nature’s Gate” shampoo which is sold at Safeway. – Lice do not like Rosemary which can be found in some conditioners. We suggest purchasing *Fairy Tales – Rosemary Repel *shampoo, conditioner or leave-in conditioning spray which are available at the Yellow Balloon in the Kentlands. The note on these products says: *Infused with pure rosemary oil which has been shown to repel lice and other insects from the hair. The products are all natural and organic. Be sure to spray behind the ears, back of neck, and tops of shoulders for maximum lice protection.* – Remind your student not to share hair brushes, bobbie pins, hats – and don’t put their coats/hats in pile.
Again – there is very little chance that anyone in HST has been exposed or will be exposed. We are just keeping our policy of notification. Blessings, Marilyn