In the midst of an otherwise good week—including a fascinating-sounding game of robot basketball—Ms. Frizzle finds her teaching style compromised by an appearance of head lice in her school:
Meanwhile my whole seventh period class had to be checked for lice (and there was at least one positive) and it’s been all I can do to stop feeling paranoidly itchy since then. Yuck. Yuck yuck yuck YUCK. I’ve never been the kind of teacher who is totally “hands-off” - I’ll give a kid a hug or a pat on the shoulder or whatever, despite the ubiquitous warnings about false accusations, etc. But man, this lice business might be the thing that finally keeps me from hugging kids!