Critical-care nurses

Special Issue | They may not have responsibility for critically ill patients, but school nurses do sometimes treat students facing life-threatening problems—and Christian nurses in public-school settings have great opportunities | Lynn Vincent

After hearing about body lice in health class, a ninth-grade boy last year went to see Karen Anderson, the school nurse at Edgewood High School in Edgewood, Md. The boy had been experiencing certain symptoms and a friend suggested that maybe he had contracted a venereal disease.

After talking with the boy for a few minutes, Ms. Anderson asked him a question: "Did you actually have sex?"

"I only did it once," the boy said.

The nurse noted how young the boy was and asked him why he had made that choice. "We had a real good discussion about that," Ms. Anderson, 42, told WORLD. "Before he left, he said he wouldn't make that choice again."

Not every school nurse would choose to steer a high-school student toward abstinence. But that's one way Ms. Anderson, a Christian, lives her faith at work without violating public schools' hands-off approach to religious expression.