SEQUIM — A no-nit policy has been nitpicked out of a School Board proposal to take a tougher stance against head lice in public schools.
By unanimous vote, the School Board decided Monday night to remove a controversial section of its draft policy that would indefinitely send home any student found to have head lice four times in the course of a single school year.
The clause was seen as an effort to reduce the risk of spreading the bothersome tiny insects to other students.
The policy, which will be redrafted and resubmitted for a first reading at the next School Board meeting in January, would still give school principals discretionary authority to send home any child with head lice, with instructions for treatment.
But nits in a child’s skin or hair — the eggs that can hatch lice — are much harder to remove and are deemed to be far less of a risk to transfer from one child to another.
Thus, board members concluded, they shouldn’t be a sole basis for removing a student from school if actual lice are not found.