SEQUIM — Public schoolteachers here have a nit to pick with nits.

Dealing with students who come to class with head lice — tiny insects which hatch from eggs burrowed in a person’s skin and hair and easily leap from person to person — has become a growing problem that increasingly distracts teachers from their regular instructional duties, Sequim School District Superintendent Garn Christensen said.

As a result, Christensen crafted a new policy governing the nettlesome nuisance that passed through its first reading before the Sequim School Board at its regular meeting Monday night.

The proposed policy places much of the responsibility for dealing with lice and nits on parents of students who carry them to school.

While the insects are not deemed a health hazard, they are regarded as an unhygienic irritant.

“Dealing with lice and nits takes away from student learning time,” Christensen said Tuesday.

“This policy supports the administration’s position that (parents) need to take their children home and get them treated.

“Right now, we have a lot of parents in denial who feel it isn’t their problem.”

Infested students go home

Under the proposed policy, school principals will be authorized to send home students found to carry lice or nits with instructions for treatment.

Those children may not return to school until it’s been verified that they’re lice-free.

On the fourth such instance in a school year, a student will be required to transfer to a special one-hour-a-week, one-on-one home-based alternative schooling program to reduce the risk of exposure to other students.

Such children will be allowed to return to their regular classes only after they’ve been verified lice-free for two consecutive weeks.

Continued problems could result in requested consultations with state Child Protective Services officials.