SIR - The last paragraph in the story about the problems Jack Mooney and his parents face regarding his skin cream (T&A, October 23) more or less says it all.

It says: "The school cannot be held responsible for applying (sic) medication nor can it allow pupils to administer their own (even though Jack does this at the weekends according to the report), for all sorts of reasons". The last five words are what we used to call a cop-out'.

If the school staff feel so strongly against self-medication (or even help being obtained by staff, and I know all about having to help little ones in unpleasant situations having been a school supervisor for four years), why didn't they list all sorts of reasons'?

Could it be because in reality they couldn't come up with one acceptable one? For heaven's sake, where has common sense gone? At one time we used to rely on schools to provide us with evidence of this.

I wonder, if the shoe was on the other foot and a member of the school's staff was in the same situation with an offspring, would we be reading this?

Mrs Rita Robertshaw, Dalecroft Rise, Allerton