Riggs said her 10-year-old daughter went on a school field trip recently and came back sun-burned. Riggs said district policy didn’t allow her daughter to bring sunscreen to reapply... Riggs said skin cancer runs in her family and her father recently passed away from it.It's Texas. It's institutional educational systems. It's zero-tolerance policy running amok. It's stupid. It's irrational. But it's real life. God help us.
But, North East Independent School District spokeswoman Aubrey Chancellor said sunscreen is considered a medication, something children need a doctor’s note to have at school.
“Typically, sunscreen is a toxic substance, and we can’t allow toxic things in to be in our schools,” Chancellor said.
“We have to look at the safety of all of our students and we can’t allow children to share sunscreen,” she said. “They could possibly have an allergic reaction (or) they could ingest it. It’s really a dangerous situation.”
08 June 2014
Texas school forbids children taking sunscreen on field trips
After several decades of surfing the web it has become progressively more difficult to be shocked by reports of unusual behavior. But every now and then one encounters an example of human stupidity so egregious, so far below two standard deviations of normal intellectual activity, that one can't help but wonder at the complexities of human psychology. To wit...
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Furher proof zero tolerance is about zero thought a lack of responsibility and covering the school's ass over the health and safety of students.
ReplyDeleteThat school has in fact increased the child's lifetime odds of getting skin cancer because of this stupid rule. But will they pay her medical bills and sit with her in chemo 20 or 30 years from now? I think not.
ReplyDeleteIt's government at work.
ReplyDeleteNo toxic substances allowed? Wow, that rules out... pretty much every substance known to man. Texas schools will now be required to contain nothing more than a vacuum more perfect than interstellar space. Politics FTW!
ReplyDeleteLike everything, things are more complicated. The school district should be applauded for moving away from zero tolerance for bullying. This report
ReplyDeletehttp://www.utexas.edu/research/cswr/rji/pdf/Ed-White-Evaluation-2012-2013.pdf&cd=6&ved=0CCwQFjAF&usg=AFQjCNEcOy275ewzDd0XFj2jYe2fgH9_eQ&sig2=Ijn6cK930A56LYUcp9sYCg
http://www.utexas.edu/research/cswr/rji/pdf/Ed-White-Evaluation-2012-2013.pdf try this link
DeleteThis looks like an excellent program that encourages actual thought. Now if only actual thought extended to teachers who let children go without sunscreen because they might share it without permission. How horrible, to have the forethought to protect yourself from cancer and then even worse to share that protection with your friends. I am all about doing things in a healthy, natural way, but I am also a cancer survivor who dopes up on the SPF50. If you have chutzpah enough to teach, then you need to have enough chutzpah to buck the rules for the right reasons.
DeleteThe ending I want is that someone sues the school, wins, and donates the money to cancer research.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if this schools rules apply to the after hours cleaning crews and the massive amounts of toxicity they leave behind for the children to absorb every morning?
ReplyDeleteGood grief!
ReplyDeleteGlad to live somewhere with a more sensible attitude to sun-related health and safety for students:
http://www.education.vic.gov.au/school/principals/spag/health/pages/sun.aspx
But every cloudless sunburning sky has a silver lining. None of these screenfree kids will get rickets:
ReplyDeleteDaily Telegraph: http://url.ie/sa1b
Guardian: http://url.ie/sa1g
I'll also mention that 10 years ago I walked 800km across Spain in July and August using a) a hat and b) sleeves as sunscreen. No titanium, no sunburn. Anecdote not data!
Water is also toxic at high enough doses, it should be banned from school too.
ReplyDeleteplease use the more scientific term: Di-Hydrogen Monoxide
Delete@Adrian, sue happy America is one of the reasons for the zero tolerance policies in the first place. So I would have to disagree with you on the suing aspect. Although I very much like the donating the winnings to cancer research.
ReplyDeleteAlso in Texas, but glad to say that my kids' school isn't on the crazy zero tolerance train. Not only do they want the kids using sunscreen, they send notes home requesting parents to send it with the kids.
ReplyDeleteI wonder what Aubrey Chancellor thinks of the toxic hand sanitizer and disinfectant wipes the schools now list on their school supply lists?