It's the lawyers

Somewhere along the line a school must have been sued for giving a child a pair of ibuprofen. I got a call from my boy this morning because his back hurt and he needed some meds. Knowing full well what the answer would be, I asked if they could give him some but they wouldn't.

I had to drive a pair of aspirin up to the school, sign in and be escorted to the nurse's office where they expected me to wait for the boy to come back so I could give him the ibuprofen. Since he didn't know exactly when I would be coming and I didn't know when he'd be back to the nurse, I had to convince her to let me leave since she isn't even allowed to hand them to him.

I brought pills in an envelope, which she frowned upon, apparently you can only bring them in the original container. I also had two extra in case he needed more after weightlifting and that got me another eye roll. I can understand that they don't want to get in trouble in case somebody gets sick from taking aspirin but that brings the job of nurse down to nothing but a receptionist with cots. A place to call your parents and lay down until they arrive.

When I was a kid the nurse had no problem administering medication or first aid but at some point some kid somewhere must have gotten got sick so the in came the lawyers. Now instead of the nurse telling the kids they are fine and to get back to class, I have to drive across town to give my kid some aspirin. But I don't blame the school for this problem, they're not the cause. It's the lawyers.