Girls badly sunburned when school requires doctor's note for sunscreen
A Tacoma, Wash., mom is seeing red after her fair-skinned daughters returned home from school severely sunburned.Violet and Zoe Michener were outside for five hours during the school's year-end 'Field Day, and when they returned home, they had burns and blisters, according to Jesse Michener. They appeared to be in so much pain that she had to take them to a local hospital for treatment.
Apparently the school district treats sunscreen like a medicine, which is a particularly stunning form of stupid. That aside, it's striking that no one thought to, I don't know, get these kids inside? Don't need a prescription to be inside a building, not even in WA. I suspect that there might be more to this story, and that's my own personal code for "my G-d please tell me that not even school administrators are this f**king stupid".
Look, assuming the facts are as presented and these two little girls are, indeed, severely sunburned as a result of the actions of their teachers and school administration, there's going to be a major lawsuit coming. Whether or not there is a doctor's note needed for sunscreen, who's brilliant idea was it to keep kids out in the sun for five hours? What about students that couldn't afford sunscreen? Or forgot it at home? I just don't buy that "they didn't have a doctor's note" is the only reason they got fried to a crisp.
And if everything is as presented, I hope those kids get enough in the lawsuit to get the hell out of that crappy school district and go to a private school with at least an ounce of common sense.
That is all.
6 comments:
At least some of the articles on it the mom points out that even if she'd put sunscreen on before the kids left the house pretty much every sunscreen out there says to re-apply after a few hours, ESPECIALLY for really really pale people, like one of the kids is.
Add in that the school policy forbids hats.
Add in that none of the adults on the school trip noticed the sunburn (and it would have been starting to show, at least on the paler kid) and thought to make sure they were out of the sun...
Apparently its a state law or some such, which makes it even more stupid. Yes there are allergies to some kinds of sunscreen (my husband has one), but they're not THAT common, and since parents are already notifying the schools of every OTHER allergy the kid has (and expecting the school to do something about it), I don't see why the reverse policy can't be used "sunscreen for everyone who doesn't have a waiver from their parents".
I had a headdesk moment when I read that the only state that doesn't have that rule is california.
Well, it *is* Tacoma. Just a matter of bad luck that field day happened to coincide with one of the days of summer.
I'm sure if they'd postponed it a week, they'd have been back to the natural Wetside gloom'n'drizzle...
(Eastside WA resident here, gotta snark up them other folks where possible.)
As a pasty white boy I call foul!
Gerry
Heh. Silly Caucasians...
I loved the bureau-logic. 1) Ingredients in sunscreen are regulated by the FDA. 2) Some kids are allergic to drugs. 3) Thus sunscreen must be a drug that can cause allergic reactions in kids on the other side of the park and so we will require a doctor's note.
As a Pallid-American, I too protest this blatant discrimination against my kind!
LittleRed1
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