Whose responsibility is sun protection?

I read with some interest an article on the BBC web site about schools having to adopt a comprehensive sun safety policy to ensure that children do not get sunburnt while at school. The article basically implied, or maybe I mistakenly inferred, that teachers should be responsible for the pupils’ protection if they are to go outside.

That sounds great in theory and I fully agree that children should be protected from the sun. Will it work in practice though? I strongly doubt it and I personally think parents should be responsible for educating their children on sun safety and ensuring they wear sun protection.

I guess the two options are that the teachers physically apply the sun lotion to the pupils or they just monitor the application of the sun lotion by the pupils themselves.

Option one, not to mention the time it would take to apply sun lotion to every pupil, would potentially open up a whole load of abuse claims against teachers.

As for option two, I’m supposedly an adult yet I know how difficult my wife finds it to get me to wear sun lotion and in the end it is normally done grudgingly and liberally with lots of places missed. Would that provide any protection to the pupil? No. And when they go outside and get sunburnt, who would be to blame? Apparently the teacher.

The issue is not so much that teachers shouldn't have responsibility, it's that they shouldn't get the blame. With responsibility comes blame, as sad as it is, that's the society we live in.

Next is the question of who would provide the sun lotion? The schools? At what expense would that be? I guess if the teachers are spending half their day applying sun lotion to pupils then they wouldn't have time for so many text books. If parents provide sun lotion but one pupil forgets, should they be banned from going outside with their friends?

I would fully agree with a teacher reminding pupils to wear sun protection if they go outside but responsibility must rest with the parents.