5th Grader Petitions Va. School Board to End ChapStick Ban

An 11-year-old Virginia elementary school student is fighting to reverse a school board policy that bans students from using lip balm.

Grace Karaffa, a fifth-grader at Stuarts Draft Elementary School in Stuarts Draft, Va., created a petition that amassed 236 signatures and presented her case before the Augusta County school board last Thursday, the News Virginian reports.

Grace was told in second grade she could not use lip balm to treat her chronically dry, bleeding lips, according to Grace’s father, who happens to be the Augusta County Supervisor. When she asked to use ChapStick last year after her lips started to bleed in class, a teacher reportedly told her it was against school policy, claiming some students could be allergic to ChapStick.

Augusta County issued a ban on lip balms like ChapStick at the recommendation of the division’s School Health Advisory Committee, which claimed the sharing of lip balm products could have resulted in a herpes outbreak that reportedly erupted at one of the division’s elementary schools several years ago. Since then, ChapStick has been classified as an over-the-counter medication by the school board and can only be administered by a school nurse with permission from a physician.

The school board has taken Grace’s request under advisement and the school administration will communicate with the Karaffa family once it reports to the county school board with a decision.

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