http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/brin ... enitnurse/

This is in the interest of the health of children in the UK. The petition was started today but all signatures will be greatly appreciated!

I got this when I clicked on the link:

503 Service Unavailable.

No server is available to handle this request.

Should be working now

Hell no!

I remember getting checked for nits at school - Sister Josephine would pull clumps of your hair out, convinced that nits were a sign of ungodliness. And somehow only ever present in the hair of black kids.

Actually, maybe this is simply an argument to close down all Catholic schools...

It is still giving me the same problem, Sienne. Sorry.

Are children the only ones that get nits at school? Did the nit nurse check adults, too? I don't remember my school in New York ever having a "nit nurse," but I do remember a school nurse (and nurse's office) at my school.

-- Nephele

We had a regular nurse who checked for nits at school.

It is hard to get rid of lice because you have to treat 2-3 times before they actually go away for good. And more's the pity if you have long hair! We used to get our hair chopped off short if we got lice because it was easier to get the comb through short hair. Bah, on the indignities of childhood!

I fully endorse Almutanabbi's comments. The nit-nurse was an excuse for division in the classroom; somehow, if you were examined for a longer time by her, it was proof that you were either (a) poor, or (b) just filthy...

Lice are not nice, but at least they don't carry diseases. To have nits was to be shamed, but it might be better to deal with the whole class as the treatments are cheap (unless you buy retail)

I may be wrong, but I have always heard that things like lice preferred clean hair to dirty hair...

Indeed, you're right, Midi - but schoolroom lore dictates otherwise...

Well....it certainly makes you feel dirty if you ever have the displeasure of getting lice.

this is very true.

I remember one year my grandmother was so afraid I would get lice that she forced me to wear my hair in a ponytail EVERY DAY to school thinking it would prevent it.

For some reason I rather liked the idea of parasites as a child.

We never had any form of official testing for lice in school, if one parent found a kid had them they'd notify the teacher and it'd be passed on anonymously for every parent to check and we'd get the standard scientific explaination of it.

the standard scientific explanation being that nit happens?