A mother was outraged and called out her daughter’s school after they sent home a live tick they removed from her head. But there’s a reason why the school sent the tick home with her daughter.
A tick is an eight-legged tiny parasite that feeds off the blood of its host. According to the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), people usually get bit by ticks while doing outdoor activities like camping.
In her video, TikTok user Mandy (@mandysnails7) shows a purple doctor’s slip she received via her daughter from her daughter’s preschool. “Found this in my daughter’s bag two days later,” she says. Then, she reads aloud what the school nurse wrote. “Tick removed behind [right] ear in hair.”
Mandy peels the note off, showing it’s attached to a ziplock bag that contains a tick. “And they sent home the live fricken tick home with her in the bag!” she exclaims. “Like, what the heck? Seriously? Why would I want the tick?”
“Ugh! This world,” she concludes.
Mandy reiterates her annoyance in the caption. She wrote, “Pre school in Missouri sends a tick home in her bag without letting me know. It was in a baggie at the bottom of her bag. I didnt see it until 2 days later! Why?!”
@mandysnails7 Pre school in Missouri sends a tick home in her bag without letting me know. It was in a baggie at the bottom of her bag. I didnt see it until 2 days later! Why?! #ticks #parenting #schoolproblems #whatswrongwiththeworldtoday ♬ original sound – Mandy’s Nails
The Daily Dot reached out to Mandy via Instagram direct message and TikTok comment. Her video amassed 1.1 million views. Viewers explained to her in the comments section why the nurse would sent the tick home.
“It’s so you can get it tested,” part of the top comment reads.
“You need it. It needs to be placed in the freezer and tested for Lymes disease,” another said.
Others similarly let Mandy know that that was likely the nurse’s intention and urged Mandy to get the tick tested.
Mandy’s response to the criticism
Mandy responded to the criticism in a follow-up video. “Just to clear things up, I do check my child’s bag every day,” she says in the follow-up. “She has a take-home folder. That is what I check. My daughter is in preschool. So, she has extra clothes I send her every day just in case of an accident. So, I don’t pull all that stuff out.”
However, she says the note and tick were buried at the bottom of her daughter’s bag. “The note was down at the bottom,” Mandy says. “That day, I pulled it out because I wanted to put some different clothes in there for her.”
Mandy adds blame on her daughter’s teachers. “It was there for two days. And the teachers get in there and put stuff in her folders every day. So, how did they not see it?”
What is Lyme Disease?
Lyme disease is an illness stemming from a tick bite. Symptoms can start between three and 30 days after a tick bite. Several symptoms of this disease are “fever, headache. extreme tiredness, joint stiffness, muscle aches and pains, and Swollen lymph nodes,” per the Mayo Clinic. If Lyme Disease goes untreated, the infection can spread throughout the entire body, including the heart, joints, and nervous system.
What do tick bites look like?
According to Prevention, tick bites “have a tiny, deep red circle with a lighter red patch around the edges.” When a tick is in the process of feeding off you, it appears as a large black oval. Typically, ticks linger on the skin, making it easy to spot them on you.
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