Woman Jailed Over Lice-Infested Children

BELLE VERNON, Pa. - A woman in western Pennsylvania is charged with endangering her two children for allegedly ignoring warnings and sending the kids to school with lice.

Authorities in Belle Vernon, Pa., say Nicole Lynn Holmes remains in jail Wednesday awaiting a preliminary hearing.

School officials in the town south of Pittsburgh told police the problem arose in February when Holmes was told she had to get her children treated before they could return to school.

sourcewww.philly.com...

How embarrasing for the kids.

I am curious as to how old they are.

Mod Edit: Added EX tags

[edit on 4/2/08 by FredT]

Wow, that's interesting.

My kid got lice 3 times and treating them isn't that easy nowadays, but I wasn't going to have that stuff living in my home. My kid ended up with her head shaved the 2 other times because the first treatment was so bad. I used probably well over hundred dollars worth of stuff on her head and it wouldn't get rid of them. The things were so thick on her head that they were walking/crawling around like nothing was going on. Then her hair started falling out. I then consulted a doctor who informed me that the strain of lice going around was resistant to the over the counter meds. Well, her poor head was already tender from all the different treatments I had already been using on her, so I wasn't going to put anything else on her and was thinking I'd have to shave her head. Someone on another message board suggested that I put oil or vaseline all over her scalp and hair and put a shower cap on it overnight to kill the lice. So I did that. It killed off the lice and then it took a few more days to get all of the nits out of her hair.

The second time I tried the oil and hair cap first and it didn't work. So, I just shaved her head and got the nits out.

The third time I just shaved her head.

Now I homeschool her for multiple reasons, one being the schools are so thick with head lice and I don't like bugs and was tired of lice. She hasn't had lice once since she started being homeschooled.

I cannot understand how she'd be charged with endangering her own children; this woman endangered other children. Her children already had the lice.

Originally posted by Jessicamsa

I cannot understand how she'd be charged with endangering her own children; this woman endangered other children. Her children already had the lice.

Maybe she did give them treatment.

My kids had it a few times withing a couple of months a couple of years ago. It is hard to get rid of.

reply to post by Jessicamsa


Having her head shaved must have been pretty traumatic for your daughter unless you bought her a beautiful wig. Its a wonder CPS or whatever they call themselves in your area did not steal your children and give them to a pedofile.Parents are in a no win situation public school your children the teacher will call CPS on you home school your children CPS will be called on you. It's time to sharpen the pitch forks and get the torches. The Frakenstein beauracracy monster needs to be taken down.

Originally posted by gauncents
BELLE VERNON, Pa. - A woman in western Pennsylvania is charged with endangering her two children for allegedly ignoring warnings and sending the kids to school with lice.

Authorities in Belle Vernon, Pa., say Nicole Lynn Holmes remains in jail Wednesday awaiting a preliminary hearing.

School officials in the town south of Pittsburgh told police the problem arose in February when Holmes was told she had to get her children treated before they could return to school.

But police say she later sent the two youngsters back to school without treatment and exposed other children to lice.



Court staff said Wednesday that a public defender would be assigned to represent Holmes at the preliminary hearing Friday.
sourcewww.philly.com...

How embarrasing for the kids.

I am curious as to how old they are.

You just know this story could only come from the good old USA. Always, looking at ways to demonise the ordinary and bring a sense of sensational to a ‘natural’ occurring part of being a child in a herd like environment!

It’s ok to own an automatic weapon but god help you if you carry lice heheheeheeeee

Well done America. Very funny. I’m laughing with you not at you! (you are all laughing at this, right? – Quickly checks the date to see if it’s an April fools joke)

I can't not think of a thread I have read recently that has infuriated me as much as this one.

Number one the woman should have been released on an signature bond.

Head lice is not easy to get rid of and it is very costly and as the previous poster said most of the lice has become resistant to the remedies.

My granddaughter got it at day care and the teacher there told us that you have to fight is aggressively and she suggested a two month regement of olive oil and shower caps every 4 nights for two months to smother the live ones and again smother the ones that hatch from the missed nits. They are so very tiny that you almost need a magnifiying glass to see them.

Why doesn't the community or school step up to help her with this problem instead of treating her like a criminal???

This one takes the cake. What is next if your child wets his or her pants in kindergarten will you go to jail for not potty training well enough?

Have we all noticed yet that the state owns our children and not we the parent?

Granted the kids need to get rid of the highly contagious bugs but help her, don't treat her like a scum bucket!

Originally posted by interestedalways
What is next if your child wets his or her pants in kindergarten will you go to jail for not potty training well enough?

Have we all noticed yet that the state owns our children and not we the parent?

Granted the kids need to get rid of the highly contagious bugs but help her, don't treat her like a scum bucket!

I couldn't agree with you more. There is nothing constructive about this.

It's kind of like years ago, if you got bad grades in school, kids either got yelled at by their parents, or grounded thinking that would make things better. Not able to realize that the kids my need extra tutoring.

Hell, that probably still goes on today.

Originally posted by interestedalways
[] but help her, don't treat her like a scum bucket!

That is the point.
HELP
Just do right

NOW

protect and serve.

regardless of what was wrong.
everything is dirty. everything is screwed.
plastic particles in the sand.

somebody needs to rise to the occasion and just pull the kids aside, shave their head and pick some nits.

Why does everything have to be about policing who did what, and what was done wrong; and how, and for how long they should be beat for it?

No wonder we are infested with bugs.

Just a penguin struggling in the oil spill...

now I am itchy,

Sri Oracle





[edit on 2-4-2008 by Sri Oracle]

Compassion seperates a civilized society from a dictatorship.

We need to look at the big picture here.

Children are scarred emotionally from these kinds of things, sheez, they got the lice from someone else. It is practically an epedimic in the midwest right now.

Where are the school counselors and the paid professionals who are trained to intervene in these situations?

What happened to No child left behind? How do the children internalize the reality of their mom sitting in jail? They will feel it is there fault and it will take a long time to rebuild any self esteem they may have had a shot at gaining for themselves.

Great to see the caring folks on here chiming in against this atrocity.

reply to post by Sri Oracle

Those with girls had better buy a great wig for their daughters if they use the head shaving method of getting rid of lice. They should also remember that lice love short ,healthy hair. So they will need to keep the heads of their children shaved if their school has a lice problem. While olive oil will kill the lice, it will also make the hair luxorious and healthy perfect for lice. A better idea than shaving heads might be to bleach and perm hair making it a lot less healthy The first step in getting rid of lice is to get rid of carpet if you can not afford wood put down linoleum. Also, get rid of all your bed sheets and upholstered furniture. Do not let your child go to sleep overs. Homeschool your children if you really want to avoid lice. Schools with lice investations should try requiring all children wear skull caps or maybe drealocks.

reply to post by eradown


I'm pretty sure it's long hair that lice like. Besides, it's not the hair, it's the scalp they want. Human blood. Parasites.

The key is to just keep everything clean as possible. There is no need to throw everything away, just clean.

Lice can only live a couple of days without a host.

Lice spread like wildfire.
If your kids are sent home from school because they have lice and you don't get rid of the lice, I think that you are an awful person.

Who, knowingly spreads disease?

Who, knowingly sends their kids to school to infect other children?

Lice were once almost never found in the US.

Now, we have the lice problem again.

That is not true that lice hasn't been in america for some time.

As a matter of fact when my brother who is now in his forties was a youngster they used ddt to kill the lice.

reply to post by gauncents


If it were just long hair that lice liked our public schools would not be invested with lice besides I've known people who kept their children's hair short and their children still had problems with lice. It is not culturally accepted for people to turn their daughters into skin heads. Lice do not like unhealthy hair ie bleached and or permed. Africans have used dred locks to keep lice at bay. I blame wall to wall carpeting for lice.

Originally posted by Wildbob77

If your kids are sent home from school because they have lice and you don't get rid of the lice, I think that you are an awful person.
.

Somepeople just may not be educated enought about lice and what they are are what they do, I doesn't make them an awful person.

If you try, and it doesn't go away, then maybe I agree

It's kind of, and I mean kind of like when you shove cold medicine down your kids throat and send them off to school knowing that they feel like #. Sometimes we do things as parents that aren't of the best judgement.

Doesn't make us bad people.

I cant say i have ever ad any experience with lice, but i did work at a drugstore where people would come in sometimes and look for the best we had to rid the kids of lice going around in school.

I know its extremely hard, extremely expensive, to get rid of. But to throw the mother in jail? This is why you hear of little kids conspiring to commit crimes- they're being programmed. They (the powers that be) show them how THEY handle matters, but God forbid, there's no tolerance the other way around. Makes for mixed up little criminals, imo.

Instead of throwing her ass in jail they should offer help,& training in order to contain it.

Why is it SUDDENLY parents DONT HAVE ANY PARENTING SKILLS BUT THEY DID A FEW YEARS AGO?????
Its not like this is a new superbug never before experienced by humankind and capable of killing the population. Is that not what "they" want in the first place???

This NWO crap is really getting out of control in schools.

Next, it will be the FLU POLICE encarcerating parents of ill children.

Originally posted by dgtempe


Why is it SUDDENLY parents DONT HAVE ANY PARENTING SKILLS BUT THEY DID A FEW YEARS AGO?????

I think that you could flip that statement around and both would be true.

To be honest here, there is NOwhere near enough information presented to come to some of the conclutions some a jumping too eh?

If she knowingly was told to treat her children for lice and did not comply then she not only put her children at risk but basicaly sent of a message that "I don't care about the other kids int he school" as well.

But again not enough information to be jumping to all these conclutions.

reply to post by FredT


True, she has a hearing on friday, maybe we will learn more then.

Heres the deal though. Not all the time people now when their kids have it. That's how it get into a school in the first place.

I've spent hundreds to treat my children only to find them coming home with it again 1 week later.

Even if she didn't treat them, did she deserve to be arrested? IF the case may be that they can't afford to fight it help by sending her to jail? Court and possibly fines and would even hamper financial responsibility even more.

But as you say FredT, it's specualtion.

I am actually pretty anxious to see what happens with this women tomorrow even though it's just a hearing.