I said last time I still had a few things to rant about in regard to public schools, so here we go. First, I recently had the parent of a 5 year old kindergartner come to me because the child was having behavior problems in school. These had, believe it or not, led to his suspension on more than one occasion. After some discussion and we agreed that there were some underlying issues which warranted evaluation by a specialist, but the bottom line to his "acting out" was boredom and frustration. His first teacher had brought him extra work that was on his level since he was ahead of the other kids. When she was moved up to first grade, the new teacher, new to both the profession and the class, did not do the same and he got upset when he had to do things he's known how to do for a long time. A few days after the visit, I had a message from her to please write a note to school confirming our plans for him, as they were now threatening expulsion. I was dumbfounded. I truly couldn't imagine that people supposedly trained in education could even consider that expulsion of a 5 year old made any sense. I told them so when I wrote the note mom asked for adding that I couldn't believe they weren't trying to formulate a plan to help the mother and child by trying to get to the root of his behavior rather than expelling him. What next, tech school for toddlers?

My next beef may not really hit home unless you're the parent of a child sent home my a school nurse for some terrible, deadly illness like .... pinkeye or ringworm, not. I'll grant you, these are a nuisance and can be contagious, but sometimes you'd think they had the plague or leprosy the way the schools treat it. The problem is they have state health department guidelines for these things, but they overreact and don't follow them. Pink or red eyes that are not accompanied by yellow mucous, pus, etc. and no fever, can stay in school, but one mention of a little pink color and out the door they usually are sent. Similarly, if kids have ringworm lesions that can be covered up by bandages or clothing, they can stay in school, but not if the wrong person sees it. They'll come up with all sorts of reasons to send them home, "it's too big", "it's been there too long". Recently a parent had to bring their healthy child in for a strep test because there had been many cases recurring in their class. This might sound reasonable, but the information they were basing this request on, that was based on a "medical opinion", was almost completely erroneous. All these things lead to missed work days for many parents, increased medical spending for parents, and yes, getting me fired up. I usually find it necessary to add my 2 cents to the notes the schools ask the parent to have me write. Another thing that bugs me about all this is how picky they want to be about having all the right forms filled out and doctors notes for return, yet they can send kids home based on emotional responses, like the dreaded fear of pinkeye, while completely ignoring the guidelines. I'll admit, there are a lot of good school nurses out there who really know how to handle tough situations, like seizures and asthma attacks, but I just wish they wouldn't get so excited about the minor things.

Every day it seems that we doctors are asked to fill out more and more forms, so it's really frustrating to have to spend more time writing notes about the things I mentioned above.

Alright, I'm done for now and I feel better to have expressed that to a larger audience.

The photos tonight are 1. bald eagle at Busch Gardens Williamsburg, 2. my son "riding" a canon at Yorktown, 3. Sunset over Chesapeake Bay

Good night.