Officials Deal with Head Lice at Tyler School; Advice Offered

TYLER — Officials at a Tyler school are following up on a lice outbreak. Our news partner KETK received an anonymous statement about the problem from a parent whose child goes to Trinity Lutheran Accredited School. The parent said, “When dropping my child off at school, I saw a sign at the check-in computer regarding head lice.”

KETK checked into the problem and was informed Trinity Lutheran followed up with parents by email. The email said, “We were informed Tuesday, February 5th, early in the morning, that one of our teachers had lice. Upon hearing this we put the school in what we call a Lice Lockdown. During our Lice Lockdown we check every head of staff and children. During our head check we discovered that two students and four teachers also had lice.” The problem is that it spreads fast. But Trinity Lutheran assured parents in the email they sent out that they were taking care of the problem.

Local doctor David Davis says, “Lice outbreaks are very, very common.” But getting rid of head lice can be challenging. Dr. Davis says there are plenty of products on the market that help get rid of lice, but you have to be diligent. And your hair isn’t the only thing that’s affected. Dr. Davis cites “clothing, the bedding, the pillows, even couches — things that they might have been laying on.” Dr. Davis says no one should go to school if he or she has lice, and he recommends people with lice stay at home until they are properly treated and checked repeatedly. Davis reminds us getting lice is not a question of poor hygiene; he says they can only be spread by physical contact.