STUDENT REPORT: School Board Discussed Lice and Vaccinations
The School Board meets two times every month to discuss matters regarding the Piedmont Unified School District schools. During this meeting, the things discussed by the board included lice and vaccinations almost exclusively. Board Vice President Sarah Pearson was very passionate and prolific on the topic of lice. In fact, this was the topic of a majority of the meeting. The board discussed how to deal with lice, chiefly in the elementary schools. The way they’ve been doing it since I was that age is having lice checks performed at school, and sending out a few email notifications to parents when a student turns up lice-positive.
Board member Amal Smith asked for clarification on how more notifications would be helpful, which is what Mrs. Pearson suggested, and the response was that awareness was when individual parents could choose to lice check their own children.
Personally, I disagree with the notion that notifications are what help us keep our children lice-free. However, I do understand the school shifting the responsibility of lice-checking to the parents, especially since it would potentially illicit more thorough checks.
The other topic discussed was also a concern of health: vaccinations. Another member of the audience, District Nurse Joan Edelstein, spoke on both issues. She encouraged people to get their children vaccinated.
I spoke to another member of the audience, Ms. Kashani. She is the President of Piedmont Teacher’s Union, and while no specific difficulties brought her to the meeting, she tries to maintain a good relationship between the union and the board. She wants to keep a close eye on the conversation of the board, since they are the people who ultimately decide whether or not the members of the union get a raise. “It’s purely political,” she says. As she has no particular concerns, there is no next step for her.
I also spoke, although the topic I wanted to address was not on the agenda, and was therefore not discussed at the meeting. The issue was this: I requested that the Wellness Center provide free contraception.
Nako,
Interesting insights on the Board meeting. Regarding your last point, I’d rather leave lice screening to the District and contraception control to the parents. By “free contraception” are you just referring to condoms or all forms of contraception?