Girl, 8, sent home 24 times for smelling

[Trident]

There's something wrong with this whole picture as far as I'm concerned. The smell, and being sent home 24 times, smells like neglect, and not necessarily at home.

 

[txsvicki]

I wonder if the mom smokes in the house or car with the child or doesn't wash her hoodie and maybe the child wears it all day at school. Even wearing shoes with no socks can make them stink. Surely the principal or school nurse would not allow a child to be sent home that many times if the teacher is just imagining the smell. It must be a BO smell though, because the school asks the child if she bathed and she 'can't remember'.

 

[jjenny]

I saw interview with mother, while kid was happily jumping on trampoline. Does the kid even want to go to school?

 

[The Cheese]

I've returned shoes of my own or a family member that smelled bad. It seems the materials some shoes are made of smell bad once your feet get warm in them. I just take them back to the store. It's a manufacturing problem - not my problem. They've always taken them back and refunded me.

Stinky shoes can be a real problem. The other thing I'm wondering is a problem one of my boys went through when he was about 6. He decided poo was so yucky that he wasn't going to wipe himself and take a chance on it getting on his hand. It was a real problem. I (and everyone else around him) wanted his butt wiped, but he just couldn't bring himself to do it himself, and of course, no one else wanted to do it at his age. The solution was a small pack of kid's wipes in a nice fruity odor that could be flushed and the pack was small enough to keep in his pocket. As soon as he wiped, he could take another wipe, and wipe his hands - just in case. Poor little guy. It just skeeved him.

This child could be bathing every night, but putting on stinky shoes in the morning, or not wiping probably during the day when she goes to the bathroom.

Whatever it is, mom needs to find the source of the odor, and a solution for it. If mom can't, for whatever reason, then I wish a school nurse or teacher would do it just out of human kindness. It's ridiculous just to keep sending the child home. Obviously, that's not working, and the child is the one suffering.

 

[AnaTeresa]

Is there something happening on the bus to school? If there's no medical cause, and CPS has checked the family out, I'm wondering if something is happening between the child leaving home and arriving at school - playing hard and getting sweaty perhaps? Or maybe some sort of bullying, or even an accident?

At any rate, the school should be working to help find a solution, rather than just send her home time after time.

 

[JeannaT]

If she's taken the child to the doctor and he stated there are no medical causes, it seems clear to me he's telling the mother she's not bathing and her clothes aren't being washed and her teeth brushed.

It would be hard to think that something was happening on the bus 24 times, that wasn't coming out in this case already.

Also, an 8 year old with minimal hygeine - who has clothes that aren't sparkly clean and maybe she bathes once a week, won't smell so foul that no one can stand to be around her. There are kids who bathe only on weekends, and they smell a little stale or gamey, but they don't smell bad enough to be dismissed from school.

My sister taught in a sketchy school district and had to do a home visit on a child who smelled horrible. Turns out the mother was washing clothes in the bathtub with dirty diapers in same load and no detergent.

I suspect something like that is going on here.

Prayers for this girl. The mother just seems unwilling to try to discover and fix what is causing her to smell.

 

[JeannaT]

Is there something happening on the bus to school? If there's no medical cause, and CPS has checked the family out, I'm wondering if something is happening between the child leaving home and arriving at school - playing hard and getting sweaty perhaps? Or maybe some sort of bullying, or even an accident?

At any rate, the school should be working to help find a solution, rather than just send her home time after time.

I think sometimes CPS turns their back when the home isn't ideal, but the child isn't in danger. The mother certainly seems to love her child.

When you look at the school and the mother's home and the community, it would be easy to think there are children in far worse conditions that might need foster care - where this child might just need a bath and clean clothes.

At this point, since this has become so public it seems like it will be solved and the girl will be in school.

 

[SwampMama]

I once had a student who came to school smelling. She and sibling slept in the same bed, slept in their school uniforms and one of them wet the bed regularly. She would come to school dirty, wrinkled and smelling of old urine and filth. She was already under the eyes of CPS (to no avail) so I took it upon myself to giver new uniforms, take her dirty ones home with me and make sure she had a clean change of clothes at school with me along with babywipes, etc.

But in this story, there seems to be a mystery of the source of the smell. Surely teacher know if it is a urine smell, or smells like cat urine, etc. Is it her breath, her hair, does she smell this way after being bathed? Has she been seen by a doctor.

My step brother once when thru a stinky phase and it was gross, come to find out, he had somehow stck a piece of sponge up his nose where it became a colony of infection and smell with made his breath smell, even exhaling from his nose.

I would say a Things need to be ruled out. If a bath and clean clothes don;t do it then check the childs home where she sleeps. Places where met is being "cooked" supposedly stick, could that be it? Are their uncared for animals where she lives?

It could be a medical condition like step bros infected nose sponge. Diabetes causes a fruity smell in the breath (ketone, i think it is called), while another medical condition causes the person to smell like maple syrup. She could have a sinus infection.

I hope this is cleared up soon. This poor child. How embarrassing to be banished like that. My own smelly student was being shunned before I discovered the problem and I set my student quick. i sent her on an errand and let them know it was NOT acceptable to make fun of her or be rude.

I told them if they thought a first grader wetting the bed was funny then they ought to make fun of ME because i did it sporadically in 2nd grade and had a 3rd grade teacher who cruelly did not allow me to go urinate and held it and begged and finally at recess i got up but could not even take a few steps before I lost control and wet myself. So embarrassing!! I taught empathy and kindness in my class, the golden rule etc and I meant it and my kids knew it.

They need to start investigating and ruling things out rather than just keep sending her home where it somehow becomes public news.

Sorry to quote my own post, I just found flaws in it and hate that. I was posting quickly and with a lot of passion and empathy which does not always translate to a well composed post.

For instance I meant " METH cooking, not met cooking" in the phrase above (BBM). But also a lot of meat frying in grease can also deposit a lot of odors on clothes as well. As a child who had a mother who smoked constantly, in the house and car (with windows UP) we reeked of smoke and people said so. Our clothes were not even allowed in others houses without being washed when we went away for a weekend with relatives.

So many people above had great posts with things that need to be looked into as a cause and ruled out. Wet clothes left in a washer too long can be funky, like a wet dog mildew smell. Also does the child have a pet? A dog can get smelly and so can ferrets.

Once my child and his friend both had the grossest smelling feet. Seems they had a contest to see who could go the longest without wearing socks. Oh GROSS!! They were promptly sent to bath and when they protested they hadnt packed extra clothes (they were with me at my camp apartment for the weekend, they were promptly give a set of MY clothes to wear while i washed theirs. Being 11 year old boys they thought this was hilarious and danced about wearing my floral underwear. Luckily I was skinny enough back then to wear their clothes and had some of shorts in my stuff that I wore that wasn't all girly.

This poor kid. She is just a kid and needs help!! So glad to see so many great post about her that really care.

 

[JeannaT]

This article has a few more details. She apparently has months at a time where her odor is at least controlled, and then months where it's a problem.

http://www.opposingviews.com/i/society/8-year-old-tennessee-girl-suspended-school-24-times-foul-odor

 

[treeseeker]

I saw interview with mother, while kid was happily jumping on trampoline. Does the kid even want to go to school?

This is IMO something worth considering. Are there other issues that make being sent home desirable? I hadn't thought about that.

 

[JeannaT]

This is IMO something worth considering. Are there other issues that make being sent home desirable? I hadn't thought about that.

Wanting to go home doesn't make you smell bad, though.

If she were doing something obvious - like having bowel accidents - I would think the school district would note that rather than unclean.

 

[mj12]

No pun intended but this case stinks....



Of school bullying and a possible vendetta against the mother AND the child. I can't believe they cannot find the source of the smell, but maybe the mother needs to "take control", as the responsibility should be with her first.

I would guess its clothing causing the problem, and as mentioned above, if they have not been dried properly, it could give off a foul stench.

 

[JeannaT]

No pun intended but this case stinks....



Of school bullying and a possible vendetta against the mother AND the child. I can't believe they cannot find the source of the smell, but maybe the mother needs to "take control", as the responsibility should be with her first.

I would guess its clothing causing the problem, and as mentioned above, if they have not been dried properly, it could give off a foul stench.

Nobody, including the mother, contends that the child doesn't smell, though.

When you read the slightly longer article I posted, the administration makes it pretty clear it's a hygeine issue - I don't know whether it's appropriate for them to investigate further as to exactly what hygiene problem is causing this odor - that would seem awfully inappropriately intrusive, IMHO. To alert the mother in a letter that her child doesn't smell good, staff and students are complaining, and she will continue to be sent home until this is addressed should be enough, IMHO. Parents have to be responsible on SOME level for their children.

I thought like someone up the board that maybe they could give her the chance to shower in the nurse's office and provide her with fresh clothing (nurses usually have sweatpants or something) but that just seems inappropriate to me. Issues arise when you have teachers telling young kids to go strip down and get in there and shower and come out here and dress yourself.

I think the school has done what they can and should -and now it's up to the mom to investigate why her smell is that offensive.

This isn't different, IMHO, from being sent home with lice or pinkeye. It's then up to the parents to take care of it before sending the child back to school.

 

[ButForFortune]

I wonder if the family cooks with curry? It may not be something anyone has thought of, but curry permeates everything and the odor remains for days. It may sound weird, but I have noticed people smelling of curry sometimes.

 

[tlcya]

patchouli

uggh

only ever smelled that product on one person who it complimented. Every other person I have smelled it on was enough to gag me.

Smells can often be offensive or not in the nose of the smeller. Maybe the kid is wearing some sort of product some days and not others? Maybe mom doesn't find the smell offensive?

This confuses the heck out of me.

The girl was repeatedly sent home in October, December, February, and again last week. School officials cited various reasons: "Did not bathe yesterday or today, Could not remember the last time she took a bath, and sleeps in clothes."

http://www.opposingviews.com/i/society/8-year-old-tennessee-girl-suspended-school-24-times-foul-odor

so if, as mom tells it, she baths daily, is she putting the same dirty clothes back on and then sleeping in them, or is she dressing for the morning before going to bed the night before.

If a kid is sleeping in their clothes and then wearing them the next day, I would consider night sweats as a possible cause. Some kids sweat very heavily in their sleep.

Mom is not being forthcoming. MOO I am more convinced than ever.

 

[tlcya]

I totally agree. This is like lice or pinkeye. While not contagious, a really foul odor can and does distract from the classroom.

 

[jjenny]

Is there something happening on the bus to school? If there's no medical cause, and CPS has checked the family out, I'm wondering if something is happening between the child leaving home and arriving at school - playing hard and getting sweaty perhaps? Or maybe some sort of bullying, or even an accident?

At any rate, the school should be working to help find a solution, rather than just send her home time after time.

I don't know how much we can count on "CPS checked the family out." If the child isn't physically abused then they are not likely to do anything. I don't think CPS is going to be all that concerned if there is a lack of hygiene.

 

[jjenny]

I wonder if the family cooks with curry? It may not be something anyone has thought of, but curry permeates everything and the odor remains for days. It may sound weird, but I have noticed people smelling of curry sometimes.

I very much doubt that is the case here.
I am guessing there is a very simple reason and not some bizarre ones.

 

[jjenny]

Wanting to go home doesn't make you smell bad, though.

If she were doing something obvious - like having bowel accidents - I would think the school district would note that rather than unclean.

It doesn't make her smell bad, but I am not sure she is trying all that hard to avoid smelling bad.

 

[jjenny]

This article has a few more details. She apparently has months at a time where her odor is at least controlled, and then months where it's a problem.

http://www.opposingviews.com/i/society/8-year-old-tennessee-girl-suspended-school-24-times-foul-odor

I don't understand this article at all. If the issue is "extremely rare" that suggests some sort of medical problem with the child.
But mother claims the child does not have a medical problem.
Or are they sayint it's extremely rare for a child to be having some foul odor?
If she sleeps in clothes like the school claims, and the clothes aren't changed and washed regularly, then they can become very stinky.
But why would that be "extremely rare?"