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Your chapstick is illegal now.
For those of you who don't know, I teach middle school and high school in a public megadistrict in the southern United States. Today I had to sit through my annual med training, which is required of all teachers every summer, in the event that we would ever want to be authorized to give a student any medical assistance whatsoever, ranging from a life-saving EpiPen injection to, you know, giving them a cough drop if they're coughing a lot.
I'm not kidding about that last one.
So the official rule in my district is that all over-the-counter medications, including cough drops (no really), are banned on school property. The only way that a student would be allowed to either a) carry or b) receive over-the-counter medications from a school nurse is if the student files a Special Permission Form with the district office that must be signed by their parent/guardian, their physician, and a licensed notary. Still not kidding about any of this. So yes, that's right: The school nurses in my district aren't allowed to give you Tylenol, a cough drop, or anything unless you go to all the trouble of getting your physician AND a licensed notary to sign this super-special form for you. And you have to get that done every summer, too, since the form is only valid for the duration of one school year. If you don't have that form on file, too bad, the best that we can give you is animal crackers and a call home.
Also I, as a teacher, am perfectly allowed to keep cough drops in my room, but I'm not allowed to ever give one to a student unless a) the student has their permission form on file and b) I have my certificate stating that I've completed the district medical training on hand. Also I'm supposed to both document with Official Paperwork AND call home to notify the parent/guardian any time that I give a student medication at school, which includes cough drops.
Oh, and guess what's new this year?! The definition of "over-the-counter medication" has expanded to include ALL forms of chapstick and lotion.
That's right.
You're not allowed to bring Lip Smackers to school anymore. Not unless you have documentation signed by your physician and a licensed notary which states that you have permission to do so. To say nothing of hand lotion.
Likelihood that this rule is ever going to be enforced: zero. But it's on the books nevertheless.
Oh, and my medical training? After having sat through one hour of lecture and completed a short written exam, I am now licensed to administer medication to my students orally, in their eyes and ears, through a stomach tube, or rectally. However, a state law prevents teachers from ever being authorized to touch either a throat apparatus or a catheter. So yes, that's right: I am now "trained" and capable of either injecting medicine directly into a hole in your stomach or shoving a syringe up your rectum, should the need ever arise, yet will never be allowed to touch your catheter or any tubes in your throat. Just so that's clear.
God I love bureaucracy.
I'm not kidding about that last one.
So the official rule in my district is that all over-the-counter medications, including cough drops (no really), are banned on school property. The only way that a student would be allowed to either a) carry or b) receive over-the-counter medications from a school nurse is if the student files a Special Permission Form with the district office that must be signed by their parent/guardian, their physician, and a licensed notary. Still not kidding about any of this. So yes, that's right: The school nurses in my district aren't allowed to give you Tylenol, a cough drop, or anything unless you go to all the trouble of getting your physician AND a licensed notary to sign this super-special form for you. And you have to get that done every summer, too, since the form is only valid for the duration of one school year. If you don't have that form on file, too bad, the best that we can give you is animal crackers and a call home.
Also I, as a teacher, am perfectly allowed to keep cough drops in my room, but I'm not allowed to ever give one to a student unless a) the student has their permission form on file and b) I have my certificate stating that I've completed the district medical training on hand. Also I'm supposed to both document with Official Paperwork AND call home to notify the parent/guardian any time that I give a student medication at school, which includes cough drops.
Oh, and guess what's new this year?! The definition of "over-the-counter medication" has expanded to include ALL forms of chapstick and lotion.
That's right.
You're not allowed to bring Lip Smackers to school anymore. Not unless you have documentation signed by your physician and a licensed notary which states that you have permission to do so. To say nothing of hand lotion.
Likelihood that this rule is ever going to be enforced: zero. But it's on the books nevertheless.
Oh, and my medical training? After having sat through one hour of lecture and completed a short written exam, I am now licensed to administer medication to my students orally, in their eyes and ears, through a stomach tube, or rectally. However, a state law prevents teachers from ever being authorized to touch either a throat apparatus or a catheter. So yes, that's right: I am now "trained" and capable of either injecting medicine directly into a hole in your stomach or shoving a syringe up your rectum, should the need ever arise, yet will never be allowed to touch your catheter or any tubes in your throat. Just so that's clear.
God I love bureaucracy.
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Hopefully the rule isn't enforced. I dont know what I would've done if I was never allowed to bring chapstick to school x_x
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Because of my OCD and frequent handwashing I've already permanently damaged the skin on my hands and arms, and it would be a thousand times worse now if I hadn't started carrying around and frequently applying lotion back in middle school.
But teenage!me would have been mortified at the prospect of having to get a doctor's note to justify having lotion for that reason, let alone having to explain all of that to my parents or having that shit put in front of a public notary.
With any sort of hygiene product I never grill my students about it because I know perfectly well that a couple of them have their own anxiety issues and compulsive rituals that involve soap, hand sanitizers, lotions, etc. And I have many more kids who just plain have dry skin, or are actually taking medication that makes their mouth and skin dry out.
That plus an environment filled with dry air, chalk dust, and allergens = NOT the place where you want to further punish kids by making things like chapstick and lotion controlled substances.
As for the cough drop thing, whatever. One of the district RNs suggested that we should keep a bag of Lifesavers with menthol in our desks to share with students instead. Apparently these exist, and recipe-wise are nearly identical to certain brands of cough drops (since menthol is the most common active ingredient in cough drops), but since they're packaged and sold as "candy" they don't officially count as cough drops. ;)
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I'm not sure if it's comforting to be reminded that I'm not the only one with that issue or dismayed that I'm not the only one. Through immense effort I've managed to force myself to reduce the handwashings so I sort of manage with putting lotion on my hands before bed, but my hands are still drier than a normal person's.
God, I hated those rules. Why is it that not even the school NURSE is allowed to give you things?
And so now they're not even allowed to use chapstick... If I'd had to explain my weird compulsion to wear chapstick which makes me go a little bit nuts if I don't wear it, I don't know what I'd do...
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TBF I highly doubt that this rule is going to be enforced. Like, ever. Not just because it's cruel to the kids, but - and this is coming from a purely selfish standpoint, but whatever - that rule is a complete classroom management nightmare for teachers.
I know that if I ever did try to enforce that rule in my classroom, it would be the same as me basically asking the kids to eat me alive. There's no way that I could enforce that rule without being the "bad guy," there's no way that I can justify the rule to the kids, and it would basically be me depriving them of something that they need for basic comfort for no good reason - thus giving them a fairly legitimate reason to resent me as an authority figure. Yeah, that'll go over real well. I also can't imagine that forcing kids to have chapped lips and dry skin will help with maintaining their focus and motivation in class. That, and of all the bajillion things that I actually NEED to be making sure that my kids don't get up to doing in class, WHY would I waste my time and energy going after them for using chapstick?! Not to mention wasting my time and energy on the huge and pointless confrontation that would inevitably result the first time that I tried to take chapstick away from a kid, a confrontation that there's literally no way I could win?!
I'm sure that every teacher feels the same way. So yeah, this rule is basically never going to be enforced. By anyone. Ever.
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(And the teachers union would probably come after the school board with pitchforks and torches.)
No but seriously snacks+candy are a pretty essential part of a functional school day, especially in the elementary schools and when it comes to after-school activities in any grade.