AUGUSTA COUNTY, Va. – An elementary school student in Virginia is working to reverse a school board policy that has banned students from using lip balm.

The student, 11-year-old Grace Karaffa, says she was denied Chapstick shortly before her lips began bleeding during school last week.

“I was told I couldn’t use it,” Karaffa told The News Virginian. “Then later that day they (lips) started to bleed so I asked for Chapstick again and I was told that it was against the school policy for elementary kids to have Chapstick.”

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After starting a petition and gaining more than 236 signatures, Karaffa took her concerns to a Thursday night school board meeting in an attempt to get the school to allow students to engage in the act of lip moisturization.

“Chapstick allows the human body to heal the lips themselves and protects them in any weather from drying out,” Karaffa said. “Please school board, allow us to have Chapstick.”

According to George Earhart, the assistant superintendent for administration with the Augusta County Schools, Chapstick is an “over-the-counter medication” that can only be applied by a school nurse after a doctor’s note is obtained.

Local residents were more than displeased when voicing their opinions on social media.

“Chapstick should be allowed!! The rule is ridiculous,” one mother said. “Children need it in the winter the same as us adults. My daughter got a bad case of chapped lips last year and had to ‘hide’ it to not get in trouble, I’m like really??”

A seperate mother even alleged that another boy was suspended for taking Ginseng to school.

“A friend of mine, her son was seen taking ginseng… was suspended and made to take drug classes,” the woman said.

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This incident is only one of many in a slow crack down on the most mundane of activities among children.

Earlier this month, students at Peregian Springs State School were banned from “unsupervised playground cartwheels and handstands” after educators deemed the activity “dangerous.”

“All students have been advised that under no circumstances are they allowed to perform cart wheels, handstands or any other type of gymnastic move at school unless they are properly supervised by a trained PE teacher,” an announcement stated.

Last year, parents in Richmond, Virginia were told that they needed to provide a doctor’s note in order for their children to be allowed to bring their own lunch to school.

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