Local News

Actions

YOU ASK. WE INVESTIGATE. Las Vegas school unable to guarantee girl will be kept inside at recess

Parent say she has allergies to pollen
Posted at 7:03 PM, Mar 24, 2017
and last updated 2017-03-24 22:03:46-04

If you're among the people in our valley suffering with allergies lately, you're certainly not alone. It has caused one valley family to pull their child out of school.

The hum of the nebulizer plays under Kaileila's cartoons, while her parents worry is right on the surface.

"It was scary," said Leonard Agpaoa, Kaileila's dad.

Leonard and Sheilla Agpaoa were so shocked that they took photos when they picked their daughter up from Southern Highlands Preparatory School on Monday.

"The teacher told me ... that there are actually five of them who had this allergic reaction when they went outside," said Sheilla Agpaoa.

Sheilla and Leonard asked her teachers to keep Kai inside, but she was brought outside for recess again on Thursday, and she had the same reaction. They took Kai to the doctor.

"The doctor said it's allergies from the pollen and she has to stay inside for the time being," said Sheilla. 

Two different doctors said it was allergies and wrote notes saying Kai should be kept inside for just two weeks. Leonard and Sheilla said they gave the notes to the school, but teachers and staff told them they could not guarantee Kai would be kept inside.

"It's a doctor's notice," said Leonard. "It's not like getting out of P.E. It's not a fake thing. So basically if she goes to school, we, as parents, just cross our fingers she doesn't get it. That's kind of...shady."

13 Action News called Southern Highlands Preparatory School, where Kai went to pre-kindergarten. They gave us the following statement:

"The health and safety of the children in our care is always our top priority. We cannot discuss confidential information regarding individual children; however, we can state that we have an obligation under state regulations to take the children outside for play, and also to maintain required teacher student ratios for each group of children. We communicated to the parents that these licensing requirements would make it difficult for us to comply with their request for their child to stay indoors due to seasonal allergies. We are thankful that in the instances that the child was outdoors under our supervision she appeared to have mild seasonal allergy symptoms that did not require medical treatment."

Then we called the Nevada Department of Education to see what rights you have as a parent in a situation like this. They said:

"Child care facilities are set up to ensure the needs of multiple children in a single setting. With child care facilities utilizing a setup of care for a group of children, individualized care is harder to ascertain, but not impossible depending on the facility. It is the duty of the facility to alert or inform families of what their limitations are and if they are sufficiently equipped and able to meet certain needs.  There are licensed facilities that are able to give more individualized care. Facilities with lower ratios may allow for the ability to have 1 child to be supervised by 1 teacher inside while other children go outside.  While the regulations require outside play time, regulators would not make a citation if a facility showed evidence of a physician's note indicating a particular child should remain indoors.  However, there's no regulatory requirement for a licensed child care facility such services, rather it's a parental responsibility to seek out a facility that can provide this level of service. "

Kai's parents moved her to a new school, where they promised they will keep Kai inside if need be.