Dave Sullivan
Northern News Services

Hay River (Dec 10/01) - Teachers in South Slave will no longer administer medicine to students, after a new policy is approved.

It will be "the responsibility of parents to make arrangements to eliminate the need for school personnel to be involved," the policy says.

It passed second reading last week at a South Slave District Education Council meeting.

Until now teachers often administered drugs like Ritalin. The need for a policy was triggered by one student's complicated requirements, said schools supervisor James Crowell.

The parent of a 10-year old diabetic had expected a teacher to determine injection dosages, after interpreting the reading of a blood sugar test.

"We said this is getting out of hand," Crowell told a recent school board meeting. "Teachers are not medical practitioners and shouldn't be administering drugs of any kind."

Later he said that parents' rising expectations was exposing schools to liability.

An exception to the new policy will be when a doctor says in writing the medicine is necessary during school hours.

But even then, assisted medication will be restricted to what can be taken orally. The only other exception is during emergencies, like severe allergic reactions.

Needles in those cases must be pre-loaded auto-injectors.

Even aspirin is out of the question, Crowell said, because of the risk of Reye's Syndrome in younger children.