Child gets poison ivy during Earth Day activity

My son is in kindergarten at Taylor County Elementary School. On Tuesday, April 22, his class went outside on school premises to pick up trash for Earth Day. Although it was a good lesson for the kids to take care of the earth, I wish my son would have brought home a permission slip.

I definitely would not have signed it, giving him permission to go into the weeds to pick up trash. He got such a bad case of poison ivy that he ended up in the emergency room. Luckily, we stopped the poison ivy with a shot and medication.

I send my child to school thinking he is safe. I shouldn't have to worry that he will be forced to pick up trash or forced to go in the weeds when he tells them he doesn't want to.

What if he would have picked up trash with dirty needles, glass, or metal or been fatally allergic to poison ivy?

The faculty should really think about this and I will continue to think about it when I think about how miserable my son was and I am paying his hospital bills out of my pocket.

Amy Thompson

Campbellsville

Taylor County Elementary School Principal Herbert Wheat declined to comment.