This is exactly what is wrong with children in "this day and age.” These kids have not been injured. Since when did getting a sunburn become an “injury”? I was born in the 1980’s. My summers consisted of skinned knees, elbows and wrists; bee stings; broken bones (I broke 4 during K-8); and sunburns. These were all hallmarks of an active summer spent outdoors. I guess this generation of children will spend their summers in the basement on their Ipad’s to prevent serious “injury.”

Severe childhood sunburns can lead to adult skin cancer. Trust me on this one.

Most likely none of them will get cancer from this one event. But they are having their skin slack off because trillions of their cells were torn asunder by UV rays. Hopefully no DNA was altered such that a melanoma was formed but we'll never know. It doesn't matter. Their skin was burnt and it's an injury, easily prevented without doing anything that would keep kids from being kids. Sun is damaging both on chronic and short intense timescales.

Here's what happens to one side of your face when you drive a truck for 25 years without protection, even if you're lucky enough not to get cancer, even at high latitudes. Wear sunscreen.

Hello- common sense anyone? Geez- when my kids were little we looked out for each others children...a doctors note? Really?
Are we that litigious a country?

Of all the topics we've ever had here, this is the one where I come closest to knowing what I'm talking about. I have the fair skin of the British/Irish, and yet I was born in Arabia.

There's usually some questions a dermatologist asks about the number of sunburns you've had by a certain age, and I always say, "You mean per week?" I was out in the sun a lot as a kid. Arabia was one long controlled sunburn for me and the worst bummer of the summer was when you peeled and had to start again.

My siblings and I have all had skin cancer but that is not necessarily a big deal in most cases. What you have to worry about is called melanoma. My brother was at a resort in Thailand during his days as an international reporter and an Australian doctor approached him and told him he had to act immediately on this kind of skin cancer the doctor spotted - possibly saving his life. Melanoma is a killer.

The routine lesser kind of skin cancers can be dealt with much easier - if you act. It's all part of monitoring your health.

These kids should just avoid getting sunburned from now on, but I absorbed thousands of times more sunlight than they ever will, and nothing happened for decades so they should be fine. You go in and they might see a pre-cancerous patch that can be frozen off. It's no big deal.

It's definitely not a freak-out situation. I avoid direct sunlight, but I must confess, I usually avoid sunscreen too unless I know I'm going to be hit. Than I go with the sunscreen.

In fact, to show how complicated life can be, there are studies out that show that sunscreen can increase your chances of the more deadly kind of cancer. I'll quote from Wikipedia:

"Sunscreen protects against two common forms of skin cancer, squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) and basal cell carcinoma (BCC), and several sunscreen ingredients protect against tumor development in photocarcinogenicity tests in mice. However, there is some evidence, largely arising from correlational studies and in vitro experiments, that particular sunscreen ingredients (such as oxybenzone, benzophenone, octocrylene, or octyl methoxycinnamate) may be paradoxically linked to increased risks of malignant melanoma, a rarer but more deadly form of skin cancer."

Having fun yet?

These kids should be better off living in the Pacific Northwest than I was in Arabia, although there are also possible atmospheric changes since I was a kid that I don't want to get into.

My guess is that all these electronic devices such as cellphones held to the brain, etc, will be more of a risk to these kids than this one sunburn incident.

Sorry this was disjointed but my brain is fried from the heat.

I actually had the one trip into the desert where we got stuck and all got heatstroke and that was really serious. We even went through the stage where everything seems really funny for a while, before everyone starts feeling really bad. Arabia was tough.

First hand knowledge on this one for me.

http://www.skincancer.org/prevention/sunburn/facts-about-sunburn-and-skin-cancer

(As far as tanning to look "good" consider that in twenty years your skin will look like the inside of a walnut.)

A doctor's note for sunscreen? How's about a little bit of trust that the parents and kids know if they are "allergic" to sunscreen. Also, let's assume that the school administrators knew for months that there was going to be a field day, and could have sent a simple note home to parents inquiring if their child might happen to have an allergy to sunscreen? I agree that someone at the school dropped the ball on this one, and they need to come up with a much better prrotocol on this one.

There are a dozen different ways this could have been avoided. How about every kid who isn't allergic to sunscreen being asked to bring a tube of it to school the first day of every school year?

Ahhh, so this is why all of those people who get Ph.D.'s in Education (paid for by the taxpayers) absolutely insist that you address them as "Doctor."

What about shade? We had big fir trees at my grade school, but why couldn't the school put up some shade tents with water and teachers could send kids there to get out of the sun? It just seems so easy..... what am I missing?

You go in and they might see a pre-cancerous patch that can be frozen off. It's no big deal.

It sounds to me like you had a close call with something potentially deadly, man. I wouldn't call it a no biggie. If we had a control universe where you used the lotion liberally throughout I'd wager we'd get to meet an even more handsome, youthful-looking BIll, with better vision to boot. Coppertone costs probably offset by the medical bills so he's probably not much richer or poorer than you.

By the time I was 10 I thought I had figured out all of the adult's lies. To my dismay, Santa still visits when you know you've been bad. I discovered that the suburban environment I was raised in was Disneyland make-pretend that bore little similarity to the real world. I can crumple my face up anyway I want and it won't stick like that, and mom's lie detector can be beaten.

So I was really on a roll. They also tell you not to look at the sum, it will burn and you'll go blind and stuff. Lying! Countless times I observed that amazing perfect sphere after letting my eyes adjust, trying so hard to see if I could pick out those sun spots I read about. Vision seemed fine to me, and it's 20/20 to this day. Later I learned how to read journal articles for free and realized I might have made a mistake. I'm still young... macular degeneration may await me in future decades. Sunglasses are a thing you should own. Or at least don't go staring at the sun like a doofus, and hone your squinting skills.

Ummm....the mom knows that her daughter has a form of albinism and didn't put sunscreen on her? Or kept a bottle permanently in her child's bag? Or taught her daughter that she needs to not spend much time in the sun without sunscreen because of her condition?

True, it's a stupid law. And true, the school could have provided some shade or suggested the kids spend some time out of the sun.

Also, sometimes sunburns take awhile to show up, especially if the kid is running around and getting hot and sweaty and red-faced.

The mom doesn't have much room to whine here.

Or maybe the teachers did not allow the kids to leave the field to get out of the sun. I have seen that happen too. The child was not allowed to have sun screen without a doctor's permission in writing.
Kids are kids. It is up to adults to protect and care of them.
All common sense was simply abandoned in this case.

I used to get sunburned all the time, especially as a kid - 'course, I used to jump out of the barn loft, too. The jumping was fun; the sunburns, not so much. Never a problem with either of them, though.

Are we that litigious a society?! Baa ha ha ha ha ha ha!!!!! Oh my gosh, can't breathe, that is a funny, funny post....

It's easy, VERY EASY, to see when a white kid is getting too much sun. Way before they start to burn it's apparent. At that point the people in charge of the kids can either do something or say an internal 'screw it' and do nothing.

I like the comments about "when I was a boy bla blabbity bla bla..." Spare me. If your teacher had let you get all frizzle fried there would have been a talking to by your parents.