Mrs. Rastahomie works at a pre-school, and one of the little ones shows up with head lice. Now, recalling my days in a public elementary school, showing up with lice meant that you got your head shaved to the scalp, had to miss two weeks of school, and for the rest of the semester you had to ride The Little Bus. But that’s another thread…
Anyhoo, since little Melvin showed up with lice, they had to inspect all the kids and all the employees. You can see where this is going…
So, it’s off to Wal-Mart to expend $27.50 on shampoo, spray, and assorted anti-lice paraphenalia. Once we get home, Mrs. Rastahomie gets to spend half an hour standing in the bathroom breathing noxious fumes from her head while I tool around the house spraying every damned piece of furniture with spray, and then I get my arms and hands bloodied up while I try to treat a very uncooperative Rastakitty.
Now, how does Mrs. Rastahomie’s employer compensate us for our trouble? By matter-of-factly telling Mrs. Rastahomie that she can’t come back to work if they find any more nits on her, and that she’ll have to take it furlow (furlough?).
I, of course, am outraged. I feel that, at the very least, they out to offer to re-imburse us for all the crap we had to buy, and then offer her some vacation time if they don’t let her come back to work. Mrs. Rastahomie, OTOH, just thinks it’s all part of the hazards of the job, and that they don’t owe us anything.
I have to agree with your bride on this one I think.
It’s a cost of doing business, as it were.
My wife picked up some disgusting external bug from a customer while at work. She brought them home, spread them around and generally infested our entire home. We shampooed, cleaned and scrubbed ourselves and the house from top to bottom, washed every thread of clothing, and treated virtually every surface in the place. We spent somewhere around 50 bux for supplies, and it took ALL of one day and a bit of the next to get the job done.
Never saw a dime from her employer…and we asked for some sort of compensation. I think he bought us lunch.
On one of my jobs, I was around infectious diseases. The few times my protective clothing was breached, the place inoculated me. One time one of my gloves caught and tore and my hand was cut. I was given the necessary disinfectant supplies and proceeded to ‘burn’ my wound out. Then I was told to report any symptoms that might appear and if they did, I would be given the antibiotics immediately.
However, being in a school environment, knowing that one of the kiddies is going to bring in something nasty sooner or later is different. Like working in a department store. Some customer with the flue is going to come in a cheerfully cough or sneeze all over you and you’ll get sick, but the store will not pay for your medication and will happily deduct your pay for any time you need over your sick days.
Just had to add my concurrence that I teared up laughing when I read “Rastakitty”. !!! You dopers crack me up! We really do have some of the greatest folks around here.
Sorry about the lice, BTW; my mom worked in a grade school for many years and it was a predictable (but no less unpleasant) thing.
Yup, I taught at secondary school, and no they don’t reimburse teachers.
Just one thing - did you remember to treat yourself too, while you did the whole of the rest of the house & rastakitty? And watch out, the wretched things get immune to the solutions available in each area…you’ll need to check again in 10 days anyway because of the egg/hatching/breeding cycle & if they are immune & stillsome there 10 days later again, you may find that a nit comb & conditioner is your best bet.
I even saw some electronic nit comb advertised in one of my ordinary shopping catalogues, same page as the electric toothbrushes - hope no one orders/uses the wrong one by mistake!
Okay, as a result of my stepkids’ mother being incompetant and sending them home with these damned things every year for four years, I know from lice, and I thought I would help folks who wander into this thread.
Lice are not restricted to people with poor hygeine.
Lice are harder than a crackhead brother-in-law to get rid of.
In trying to rid my house of these damned things, I have bought literally at least $200 worth of Rid and Nix, as well as going to a dermatologist for a Lindane prescription (which worked like a dream, right up until they went to visit this woman AGAIN). I have washed hair, spent hours combing, sprayed, fogged, and mutilated entire houses worth of linens…and STILL had them not go away.
I have a solution.
Well, two.
Vaseline. If you COAT the affected person’s head with vaseline and have them sleep on it (under a shower cap, natch), they die. However, the one time I got the damned things, it took me three weeks to get the vaseline out of my hair.
MAYONNAISE. Coat head in mayo. Cover with Saran wrap. Wait twenty minutes. Repeat next day. They all die. And your hair feels really soft.
Make sure the mayo is oil-based…none of this low-fat crap.
Nearly identical situation with my wife. Her opinion was that it is, in general, an accepted occupational risk. The exception is when the problem is handled improperly by the institution, as I’m about to relate.
My wife teaches at a residential treatment institution. There is an open section of campus, and a locked section; she teaches in the locked section. Two new students come in with head lice. They get shampooed, <b>and that’s all the school does.</b> A week and half later, the dormitories are thoroughly infested, as are 30 out of 32 students, and many staff. And many staffs’ families. (The two un-infested students were the original culprits) This resulted in fumigations, extra laundry details, low staffing levels because of employees having to disinfect their homes and stay home with children banned from daycare, all because of a cavalier attitude on the part of the medical staff. While all the repurcusions have not been sorted out yet, the head nurse is probably going to lose her job. (Did I mention not changing gloves between children while doing inspections?) This was an easily avoidable situation, and falls under the heading of negligent conduct, not accepted risk.
Also, you probably tortured Rastakitty unnecessarily, as all the sources we checked said that head lice are very species specific. Still, better safe than sorry.
No, I didn’t put any shampoo on my head or anything, but Mrs. Rastahomie inspected my head pretty thoroughly for about an hour with a fine-toothed comb, and I came out OK. And I sprayed all of my pillows & such.
BTW, would it be effective to dust an infected person’s head with yeast, on the theory that the little bastards (the lice) eat the yeast, which then swells up in their digestive tract and they die? I think I saw this in a movie somewhere…
