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39
CLEANSING OF VERMINOUS SCHOOL CHILDREN.
By virtue of an arrangement made with the London County Council in 1907,
children attending the schools of that Authority, and who were found to be in a
verminous condition, could obtain a bath and disinfection at the City Disinfecting
Station.
Although doubtless this resulted in some improvement in the condition of the
scholars, the London County Council had no statutory powers in the matter.
The passing of the Children A.ct, 1908, however, empowered the Education
Authority to take effective measures for dealing with children attending school in
a verminous condition, and by an agreement entered into on the 26th April, 1911,
between the London Count.v Council and the City Corporation, the latter body agreed to
grant to the Council the use of the Cleansing Station at the City Mortuary for the purpose
of cleansing the clothing and persons of verminous children residing in the City and in
attendance at Public Elementary Schools provided and maintained by the Council.
Among other matters the agreement provided as follows:—
(1) That the Cleansing Station at the City Mortuary, Golden Lane, be reserved
for this purpose on Tuesdays and Thursdays, between the hours of two
and four o'clock p.m.
(2) That the Corporation's own officials shall be responsible for this cleansing
and disinfection process. The number of children required to be
cleansed to be limited to not more than 10 in any one day or 20 in any
one week.
(3) That the Corporation, concurrently with the cleansing of any child, take such
steps as they may legally be empowered to take to cleanse the homes
when such is reasonably necessary for the health and cleanliness of the
child.
It will be observed that the facilities granted by the Corporation in this respect
were limited to children resident in the City. During the year 1913, the London
County Council approached the Corporation with a view to extending the practice to
children in attendance at City Schools, but resident outside the City boundaries.
The nine ordinary Elementary Schools within the City have accommodation for
3,490 scholars. The numbers in attendance, however, are usually somewhat below
this figure, but in June last there were 1,354 City children attending such schools.
There were also 2,144 children residing outside the City attending the City schools. It
will be seen, therefore, that less than one.half of the places in these schools are occupied
by City children, and it was only for the smaller proportion of children that the
disinfection and bathing facilities were available.
Having regard to this fact and to the consequent risk of contamination to City
children, it was decided by agreement, dated 28th November, 1913, that the facilities
which had in the past been available for cleansing City children should be extended to
those resident outside the boundaries, but who attended schools situate within the City
limits.
The objection to this policy is that it involves a dual responsibility—i.e., one
authority being responsible for the child and another for the home, but as no other
authority would undertake the cleansing of these children, the question became one of
self.preservation, and this consideration, in my opinon, outweighs this single objection.