Kindergarten Kapers!

Head lice and the Salon Treatment

One of the very fun parts about teaching is that you get to meet so many really nice, cool people, both adults and children.  Some of the children grow up to be Afghan war heroes, some grow up to be Receptionists at local car dealerships, some grow up to be famous authors and artists, and still others grow up to be that which they aspired to be in Kindergarten… a worker at the local Dairy Queen.

This particular story doesn’t involve any of those children, even though those kids actually were students of mine at one time or another.

No, in this story, children are involved, but it also includes one of my very favorite people, a Kindergarten teacher named Leslie; we called her, “Lester.”

Head lice are rampant in any school setting, public or private.  There’s just no escaping it, no matter how many times you bathe and wash your hair.

It’s just a fact of life, like taxes and love.

On this particular day we were told by our building principal that we needed to briefly discuss a parent letter that was to be sent home that afternoon.  The letter contained information about which treatments worked best, how long to leave the formula on your child’s scalp, checking for nits, eggs, and so on.  Pretty straight-forward stuff.

The following day, wouldn’t ya know it; two bright-eyed youngsters came hopping and skipping into Leslie’s classroom ready for a big day of fun and learning.  Following the morning announcements, the children gathered in a circle at the front of the room to briefly chat about last night and what they were going to learn that day. 

The topic of head lice came up and the group had a very lively discussion.  No sooner did the little ones break into their usual groups then two girls, we’ll call them Janey and Sally, decided they needed to go use the restroom.

They were gone for what seemed like hours, but were actually only out of the classroom for about 10 minutes.  When they returned, both Janey and Sally, holding hands, skipped into the room.

Leslie, turned, and just gasped.  She was beside herself. 

Her two young charges had taken a shampoo bottle into the restroom, dampened their hair and put what appeared to be a half cup of shampoo into each other’s hair.  Oh, and they worked it into a good lather, too!

Poor Leslie.  You could tell she was just fuming.  Her eyes got big, nostrils flared, and she glared at the two little darlings.

“We do not shampoo our hair at school!!!”

Well, as you can imagine, the smiles instantly left Janey’s and Sally’s faces as they were marched over to the sink where they took turns holding their heads down and having the shampoo rinsed out.  They were each given a rather large handful of paper towels to use for drying their hair.

Thankfully for our two young hooligans, the weather was nice that day, and yet they still left the room for recess with their heads hung low.

Their mommies were less-than-thrilled about their girls at-school beauty salon experience, and assured Leslie that there wouldn’t be a repeat of this little stunt any time soon!