School parents want girl with peanut allergy sent home - Page 2

Just playing devil's advocate here. So, what if a student had severe allergies to pet dander, and was triggered by the dander on other student's clothing and backpacks? Would it be OK to mandate that other children who attend that school must not have pets? Or that they cannot touch them before coming to school? At what point do we draw the line? I am all for making reasonable accomodations for children with any medical condition...but where do we draw the line for reasonable? I know some kids who have as strong an attachment to their favorite foods as to their pets, LOL.

As a school I would worry about the liability. Mistakes happen and I don't know if I would want my one mistake to cost the life of a child. I don't know what the answer is to this. On one hand I do feel that all children have the right to an education, but on the other hand "reasonable precautions may not be enough to create a safe environment for this child. I also feel that any accommodations should not disrupt or cause stress for the other children in the school. For this school, these accommodations may work and are fine, but for another school it may not work. A lot of schools do have special needs children that are in this mix and this special needs child may not eat anything else. So I guess it would depend on the needs of the other students. The good of the masses should out weigh the good of one. If it doesn't cause other students to have a special need to be taken away and the school's faculty is willing to take on the responsibility/risk then I think it could be a good thing and work.

I'm sorry, but when I was growing up---and even when my kids were growing up---reasonable parents did not expect school officials to inconvenience the entire student body for the sake of their child with food allergies/asthma/learning disability etc.

In fact, I'd never even heard of food allergies until I had kids in school......why do you suppose there are so many kids with allergies now, as opposed to 40 or 50 years ago? I'm sure food allergies existed even back then, but we never heard about it because nobody made a big deal out of it or asked 400 grade-schoolers to give up their PB & J. Some of the posters here have stated that the child in question should have the right to attend school and be "normal".........but how normal can any child possibly feel if peanut products are banned on school grounds because of him/her?

For my money, this illustrates a much larger problem with American society that goes far beyond one elementary school. So many people have come to believe that life is some sort of Burger King......that they're entitled to demand special treatment, to inconvenience others, to have everything their way. I'm not saying that food allergies aren't real or that they aren't serious, even deadly; however, those parents will not be around forever to shield their little girl from every potential exposure to peanuts, nor will society at large give up their Skippy Super Chunky and their PayDay bars to accomodate her.

(Personally, I think the child needs allergy shots; while it's a PITA to have to go to the doctor's office every week for a year or two, I can tell you from experience that the shots help.......often for decades. But that's soooooo inconvenient in today's hurry-up world---far easier to simply ask all the other parents in the school district to forgo peanut products when packing lunches for their kids. )

Just my .02 worth.

In my community all schools are peanut free. I remember, before I had kids, my girlfriend saying that her daughter's school was nut free. At first I thought this was absurd as a pbj sandwich is usually a staple for most lunchboxes!! I mean it's cheap and kids love it.... how could this be?? Just because one or two kids has an allergy dosen't mean all kids should suffer... does it??!!

However, peanut free schools are now the norm, no one thinks twice about it! And because it has been in place for over 10 years (at least) kids don't even know what they are missing. It has always been a non issue with them!! I am sure there may have been a few dissapointed kids the first week or two this concept was implemented, but kids are adaptable and like another poster said it's not like they can never have a pbj sandwich ever again!! Also, I think most kids are sensitive to the needs of other students, especially at the primary ages where nut free is the most important. In the older grades kids with the allergies know enough about their condition to not trade their yucky bolonga sandwich with a classmates yummy, potentially hazardous sandwich.

This really is about education for the parents of the non allergic kids!! I can't believe I was so thoughtless in my thinking before! Seriously... so what if my kid can't have pbj... they can still have jelly! How about a honey sandwich or egg salad. Why even a sandwich? There are so many cost friendly lunch ideas all one has to do is google it and their kids will have the best lunch in the lunchroom!!!

My concern is that the student in Florida has a very sensitive and DEADLY reaction to peanuts. She can't tolerate peanuts being breathed on her. This isn't simply a case of not being able to eat them.

If my child was in the same situation as this student, I would not send them to public school. Too many mistakes, even with the most well meaning of efforts, could cause this child to perish. Schools are made up of teachers, not medical professionals. I don't think a regular public school system can provide the kind of environment for this particular child that could ensure her safety. If it were a regular food allergy, then I think regular accomodations could/should be made. The parents of the 6 year old in Florida with the DEADLY food allergy are putting a lot of trust in the school system, and I don't have a good feeling about that.

Schools are dealing with trying to maintain test scores and all kinds of behavior problems. I know my sons' school can barely keep up with which child needs to be excused to the bathroom because of medical needs. Several kids who have notes provided by doctors that have been submitted to the schools have been forced to soil or wet themselves because someone forgot, even though the student has all sorts of papers on file with the school about their condition. Do you think I would trust those same people with my child's deadly condition? Those students were embarrassed because of a mistake; the girl with the peanut allergy could die because of a mistake.

She has a right to be at school, but I think her safety overrides that right.

So as this child grows up, the whole world will give up PB? Unh - doubt it.

It goes back to the parent's responsibility. I had a child with severe asthma (intubations, etc). It was not the schools responsibility, it was mine and my husbands. We made sure that one of us was ALWAYS within 2-3 minutes of the school and yes, we rearranged OUR lives to make this happen for 10 years! My husband gave up military assignments, I gave up jobs. However, this was OUR child, not the school's. Again, goes back to accepting responsibility as a parent!

This is a good point I had not considered before. What happens when there is a sub who is not aware of the child's condition? Or a new student enrolls who ate PB&J for breakfast and didn't wash his/her hands? There are just too many ways this can go bad. If the child is that sensitive to peanuts, I too would be homeschooling.

Research is showing that many peanut allergic kids may eventually out grown severe reactions and desensitizing treatment is showing a lot of promise.

Why does it seem so much more common now?
One theory is that the kids are being sensitized in utero. Peanuts and their byproducts are cheap and deeply entrenched in the food supply.

One theory is that the kids are being sensitized in utero. Peanuts and their byproducts are cheap and deeply entrenched in the food supply.

But haven't they always been?

I've been reading some of the media reports on this and one issue surprised me as I really hadn't given this much thought.

In a peanut allergy - you are allergic to a protein.

Regarding airborne contact - that is highly unlikely due to that fact. I think people are panicking (reminds me of the panic over linking autism and vaccinations).

"As I point out in Food Allergies For Dummies, airborne reactions to peanut protein in peanut butter, candy bars, and even peanut butter crackers is very unlikely. The reason is because the peanut protein, which is responsible for triggering a reaction, is usually contained by some other ingredient in the food, such as chocolate or caramel. You may be able to smell the peanut butter, but the odor is the result of something other than peanut protein."

Here is a link to the research by the gentleman I heard quoted last week:

http://www.allergysafecommunities.ca..._faan_2003.pdf

I agree that teaching kids to wash their hands is a good idea - regardless of the reason.

But this case goes way overboard.

Also, the myth of homeschooled kids being "unsocialized" has been debunked for a long long time.

If this was my child, my highly allergic child, I'd teach my child at home.

steph