Lice outbreak at Manhattan’s famed Fieldston School
A posh New York City prep school is in the midst of a major lice outbreak — and one expert says classrooms across the city are battling the bugs.
On Monday, the Manhattan campus of the tony Ethical Culture Fieldston School brought in a lice exterminator to check students for bugs, according to a school newsletter. It’s unclear how many students were ultimately impacted by the infestation.
Adie Horowitz, the owner of Licenders, which screened the Fieldston students, said that after a brief coronavirus hiatus, lice have returned to city schools with a vengeance.
“Practically all the schools have outbreaks. It’s only because they haven’t been doing the screenings since September when the kids came back with it after summer camp,” Horowitz said. “The best thing that a school can do is periodic screenings, four times a year . . . which is what schools used to do before COVID,” she added.
Horowitz declined to comment on the Fieldston infestation.
One expert said lice outbreaks are exploding across New York City schools following a coronavirus hiatus. San Martin Gilles
At Fieldston, where annual tuition runs a staggering $60,595 a year, parents and insiders claimed administrators initially refused to conduct a school-wide screening of students — and delayed alerting parents about the outbreak.
“The school is worried about exposure and wants to contain the story,” and parents “were super frustrated,” one insider said.
“There was going to be a community revolt if the school kept sitting on its hands,” the insider continued, adding that at least 15 families in the third grade were affected by the lice outbreak as of May 11.
One Fieldston insider said school administrators initially refused to conduct a school-wide lice screening. J.C. Rice
Ticked-off parents at the school said the infestation likely spread because of the bungled response.
Head lice are parasitic insects that can be found on the head, eyebrows, and eyelashes, and feed off human blood several times a day, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
A spokesperson for Fieldston said that the school “reacted quickly and followed our extensive lice protocol,” including having school nurses check students in affected classes and alerting their families within 24 hours of the first case and later hiring a lice exterminator for additional screening.
Source: New York Post
