House Approves Bill To Allow Students To Bring Sunscreen To School
The House overwhelmingly approved a measure to allow children to bring sunscreen to school and apply it themselves. It would also allow parents to designate someone at the school to help their children put on the sunblock. The lone dissenting vote came from Baton Rouge Representative Patricia Smith, who raised concerns about teachers putting lotion on students.
“You don’t want a kindergartner going home and saying, ‘Teacher put this sunscreen on me, but they didn’t touch me right,’” Smith said.
Baton Rouge Representative Barry Ivey says he’s always amazed at the items that become controversial on the House floor. He says there are spray and stick sunscreen that could be easier for young children. But he says nowadays young kids can work iPhones, so they can surely apply sunblock.
“At 3-years-old they’re showing adults how to use the dadgum thing, and so to assume that a child can’t apply sunscreen may not be accurate at 5-years-old,” Ivey said.
Students are not currently allowed to apply sunscreen at school. It must be administered by a nurse because it’s categorized the same way as prescription medications. Ivey was upset a bill like this was even necessary.
“What if we just took it off of that list? It’s sunscreen. It’s sunscreen. Has anybody OD’d on sunscreen?” Ivey said.
The measure was approved on a 99-1 vote and now heads to the Senate.