Schools' limit on lip balm irks some parents

As the weather gets colder, parents might want to send their children to school with lip balm to ward off cracked, bleeding lips.

But in Johnston County schools there is confusion over whether Chapstick and other lip balms require a parent's permission or a doctor's note. Simply showing up with lip balm, though, isn't allowed.

The policy strikes some parents as over the top, and they aren't sure how to go about protecting their children's lips.

Stephanie Boyd, a parent at West View Elementary School in the Cleveland community, said she received a letter Nov. 9 saying lip balm and cough drops weren't allowed.

"I just don't see how Chapstick can even remotely be perceived as medicine," Boyd said. "Is it me or has common sense just gone out the window lately? They seem to ban something new every single year."

On an Internet message board, one parent joked that he might have to join the Church of Chapstickology in order for his children to have lip balm - a reference to the controversy this year over a Clayton High student's religious nose stud.

Schools spokeswoman Terri Sessoms said the policy comes from a Johnston County Health Department edict governing the use of drug store items in schools. The department has authority over public health issues in all county agencies, including the schools, Sessoms said.

"Parents were afraid that children would share the Chapstick and spread germs," Sessoms said. "By requiring written permission from the parents, parents would be aware that their children had Chapstick and would be able to remind them not to share it with other children. This would also be a way for teachers to be aware so that they could deter students from sharing it with others."

But the West View parent handbook is silent on Chapstick, though it does say medicated lip balm requires a medical form, much like other over-the-counter drugs that children might need at school. The letter Boyd received, from a first-grade teacher, simply said, "Do not send Chapstick or cough drops to school with your child."

Sessoms said West View had not updated its policies since the health department changed the rule this year. In the past, the county agency considered Chapstick an over-the-counter medication requiring a doctor's note.

Under the health department's edict, Chapstick isn't the only non-medicine item requiring a parent's note. Hand sanitizer, sunscreen and baby wipes are also on the list.

"The sunscreen and hand sanitizer is because children tend to share, and parents have shared concerns that their children have allergic reactions to these items," Sessoms said.

The schools do not punish students for carrying contraband lip balm, Sessoms said. When teachers find moist-lipped scofflaws, they simply call the children's parents and inform them of the policy.