Sunscreen Today Show spotlight: Jesse Michner, Washington mom, outraged by FDA sunscreen rule

Child burnt after shcool bans sunscreen

Washington mother Jesse Michner is outraged that her children, Violet and Zoe, were severely sunburned during field day because the school wouldn't let her kids use sunscreen. Their story was spotlighted on the Today Show.
Photographer: Courtesy of WCPO

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Posted: 06/25/2012

By: Caroline Crouch, WCPO

TACOMA, Wash. - The story of a sunscreen controversy is getting the attention of parents around the country.

A Washington mother is outraged that her children were severely sunburned during field day because the school wouldn't let her kids use sunscreen.

Jesse Michner says school leaders in Tacoma, Wash., told her that it's illegal to send sunscreen to school with her kids. That's because the FDA regulates sunscreen as an over-the-counter drug. Many states don't allow sunscreen at school without a doctor's note.

Michner was horrified when 11-year-old Violet and 9-year-old Zoe came home from school with severe sunburn on their faces and arms.

Dan Voelpel, a spokesman for the Tacoma School District says "because so many additives in lotions and sunscreens cause allergic reaction in children, you have to really monitor that."

Michner says her kids "couldn't even reapply sunscreen without a doctor's note. They couldn't carry that in their back backs. They couldn't even wear hats, because hats aren't allowed at school."

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