For the good and sensible readers of NRO, not much need be said about this utterly mindboggling story out of Washington State, where one outraged mom had to rush her two very fair-skinned daughters to the emergency room after they returned from school with scorching sunburns.
The reason? The girls weren’t allowed to put on the sunscreen that their mother sent with them to the school. That’s right, their mother had given them sunscreen to re-apply during the day, but the girls were not allowed to put it on. Instead, they baked on a day spent mostly outside in the hot sun.
So, why no sunscreen? According to an ABC report on the story, the state actually outlaws sunscreen because some kids might be allergic to the ingredients in the lotion. As one school spokesman explained, they “really have to monitor” the kids for these allergies.
Uh huh . . . or you could just trust that mom and dad are responsible enough to provide their children with sunscreen to which they are not allergic. The spokesman didn’t comment on whether the school planned to begin “monitoring” kids for sunburns so bad that they require medical attention.
Julie Gunlock is a senior fellow at the Independent Women’s Forum.