PC policy set to ostracize PB&J eaters
Updated 10 January 2004: ‘Peanut free zone’ compromise reached (details at bottom of post)
School ‘Peanut Gallery’ Raises Eyebrows
One first grader at Central Indiana’s Pleasant View Elementary School has a peanut allergy. To protect this single student anybody who wishes to eat a PB&J is relegated to a special peanut table. Soon they will be forced into a segregated ‘peanut gallery’.
School Superintendent Mary Ann Irwin called it “one of the most challenging” accommodations the school has made for its students.
“I think everybody realizes [that] as parents we’re advocates for our children and no one wants this young man to be endangered,” Irwin said. “We want all our kids to feel that this is a normal environment, that nobody is ostracized for any reason, whether you bring peanut butter or whether you don’t have peanut butter.”
Given that statement it seems a bit odd that Irwin is intentionally ostracizing every student who has peanut butter.
“He does not have to ingest it for his air to constrict and he loses the ability to breathe,” the parents wrote in a statement. “We have the medical evidence that shows that our son has one of the worst allergies on record for this food.”
That’s a genuine shame, but so what? Reasonable measures might include notifying the teachers so they can keep an eye on what the kid tries to put in his mouth and making sure the school nurse understands the problem and has emergency treatment available. It is most definitely not reasonable to restrict the entire student body for the special needs of one student.
“I don’t think everybody should have to suffer because of one kid,” said Mike Raper, a critic of the idea and fianc� of Savannah’s [another student] mother. “I think it’s a terrible precedent. Basically, because there’s nowhere to draw the line. You’ve got people allergic to milk, wheat. My own son’s diabetic. There’s just no where to draw that line.”
The point is, there is no need to draw any line. To quote Texas Teacher, “Your child is clearly too ill to be in a normal school environment, so you need to home school him. Any other option is simply irresponsible parenting.”
(Tip credit to Precinct 333)
UPDATE
Compromise reached on Yorktown school’s peanut ban
Instead of segregating the peanut eaters or banning peanut products the school is setting up designated ‘peanut free zones’.
“The compromise is what we asked for in the first place because of all the issues that go along with the peanut ban,” said the father, whom the newspaper did not name. “We never asked for a complete ban.”
It appears that the parents were far more accomodating and reasonable than the school.
(Tip credit to Jenn from GA)
My daughter has a peanut allergy, and even a slight exposure can be deadly. When she was in the g-schools (we homeschool now), she would sit at a separate table whenever something with peanuts or peanut butter was on the menu. The school gave us the lunch schedule a month ahead of time so we could send her own lunch on those days. I thought this was very reasonable. Otherwise, she sat at the same table with kids who may have peanut butter, and we never had a problem. Having all the other kids make an accommodation seems really dumb. But given some of the other things the g-schools do, I’m not surprised.
Sounds like the parents are the problem here — not the school. If a parent insists, no matter how unreasonable they are, the schools have to accomodate them. Public Law 94-142 and other laws demand it.
Also…. a first grader often doesn’t do exactly as told — Jim’s statement about this shows he hasn’t been in the lunchroom with 1st graders. A misbehaving 1st grader could mean death to this kid — or so the parents would have us believe.
barry
I say if the kid’s that damn sickly, he shoulnd’t be in school. He should be kept home or in a plastic bubble if he can’t cope with the real world.
People who are so sickly that they drop dead at the sight of peanuts and benas shouldn’t be allowed to reproduce. Their genes are inferior and if they’re stupid enough to expose themselves, so much the better to keep the gene pool pure.
Jim:
I don’t think you appreciate how dangerous a severe peanut allergy can be. There are kids who could literally die if exposed. But if properly managed, there’s no reason why people with severe allergies can’t get along just fine with everyone else, especially once they’re old enough to know how to avoid nut exposure.
Do you honestly think we, as a society, are better served by taking kids with perfectly manageable allergies out of the regular schools? Not only is that absurdly expensive, but it doesn’t serve the children well.
One of my kids had a classmate with a peanut allergy one year, and the entire class had to be peanut-free. Asking parents to avoid sending their kids with peanuts in lunches is a very minor inconvenience, especially compared to the expense of taking the allergic child out of school, or the danger of accidental exposure. And if a parent forgets, giving the kid a place to enjoy his PB&J safely is a perfectly reasonable solution.
Allergies can be deadly. This kid reacts to peanuts the way some kids (and adults) react to bees. It also clearly states that the kid does not need to eat the peanuts to have an allergic reaction, just being around them is enough, so expecting him or the teachers to “control what he puts in his mouth” is irrelevant. When he smells peanuts, it’s deadly.
I had a student in one of my classes this year with a peanut allergy. Since I teach at a high school, his parents allow him to handle things himself, avoiding peanuts and peanut products. They only mentioned things to the school nurse. Another student with a blood sugar problem came into my room to get a spoonful of peanut butter because his blood sugar was getting low and I gave it to him. My allergic student walked in a few seconds after the diabetic student. At the door, he realized there were peanuts or peanut products in the room — and the other student and I were across the room. THe otehr student had his back to the allergic boy, so he couldn’t see the peanut butter and I had sealed the jar and dropped it in my drawer. He waited in another room until it was safe for him to return. We were lucky. If he weren’t so alert to the symptoms of his allergy he could have died. That type of alertness is a little to extreme to expect from a six-year-old.
What’s more, this is a fairly regular practice at elementary schools where someone with a peanut allergy attends. After all, what’s more important — someone’s right to a public education or someone’s right to eat peanut butter? Someone’s need top breath or someone’s need to eat peanut butter?
And Shadowhawk, I’ve read a book by someone with similar ideas to yours. The author’s name was Adolph Hitler.
I say if the kid’s that damn sickly, he shoulnd’t be in school. He should be kept home or in a plastic bubble if he can’t cope with the real world.
People who are so sickly that they drop dead at the sight of peanuts and benas shouldn’t be allowed to reproduce. Their genes are inferior and if they’re stupid enough to expose themselves, so much the better to keep the gene pool pure.
Posted by: shadowhawk at January 5, 2005 04:17 PM
Shadowhawk - what an ironicly apt illustration of zero intelligence.
your argument is indeed illustrative of that, and the ideals of genetic purity and social darwinism he found so very persuasive.
Unfortunately, most of those ideas sprang to being in the ivory towers of Harvard and Yale.
But folks like you are always on the lookout for learned-sounding excuses for a lack of compassion, or the application of common sense and ethics to a conflict between the right to life and the right to eat peanut butter is a sterling exemplar of the sort of humorless collective dogmatism that results in the more usual sort of zero-tolerance stupidity here.
We can only hope one of the other kids do the school a favor and slip this kid some peanut butter to eliminate the problem.
Woah! This is not a case of a right to live versus a right to eat peanut butter. This is a case of the unique needs of one person taking precedence over every other person.
The child has a serious peanut alergy? Fine, keep him away from peanuts. You do not do this by setting up a segregation unit for the other kids.
Just to get this straight for y’all - I have no problem with accomodating the special needs of a student until that accomodation causes a detriment to other students.
The kids are being asked to eat at a different table and maybe eventually a different room on the days that they bring peanut products. Hello — does this really cause a detriment to students’ educations? This is the kind of argument that is ludicrous when we are talking about the allergic child’s LIFE. The kids who eat peanut butter aren’t forced into a different classroom during structured educational time, just during lunch. Most school lunches last for 20-30 minutes. Sounds like people making a mountain out of a molehill and just looking for a reason to justify their “rights” versus this child’s rights. I guess the right to eat peanut butter near an allergic child makes some people happy, and therefore could be argued as constitutional, but I really don’t think most people really see this as a fight worth fighting — at least not most resonable people.
Perhaps you can explain to me how eating lunch at a different table or in a different room causes a “detriment” to other students’ educations. I suspect that most of the kids are more understaning and reasonable about this situation than some adults on this site.
And how about this: can friends of students with peanut products join them at the peanut table or in the peanut room? After all, the only kid who needs to stay away from the peanuts is the allergic kid.
Perhaps you can explain to me how eating lunch at a different table or in a different room causes a “detriment” to other students’ educations.
Nobody has argued that education is affected either by eating peanut butter or by eating peanut butter apart from non-peanut butter eaters.
After all, the only kid who needs to stay away from the peanuts is the allergic kid.
Exactly! So keep him away from peanuts. Do not keep every kid with peanuts away from him.
Most school lunches last for 20-30 minutes.
Exactly! So what is the big problem with keeping this kid out of an area that is deadly to him for a half hour or less each day?
And what do you honestly think is safer and more efficient here? If they keep this one kid out of a known dangerous area they guarantee his safety. They are opting to monitor and identify EVERY POTENTIAL PEANUT SOURCE in an attempt to defend him in a known dangerous area.
If their interests were in giving the child the best protection possible he would not be in the lunchroom at all.
Should the kid with a peanut allergy be allowed in a grocery store, apartment complex, or near a dipsy dumpter. It seems like all of these places could pose the same problem. The safest and most practical solution is intelligent and voluntary cooperation. As a parent I would be reluctant to put this child in any environment I had not thoroughly and intensly investigated. I would not trust anyone who I was not completely convinced would protect my child. I’ve seen schools spend a lot more time an money on kids who needed more extreme accomadations, and I think the only reason this child could not be accomadated is because they are making a fiasco of it.
“We can only hope one of the other kids do the school a favor and slip this kid some peanut butter to eliminate the problem.”
So you really think that it would be better that some other kid should be charged with murder and the school sued up the wazoo?
Let’s take a close look at the parent’s statement:
“We have the medical evidence that shows that our son has one of the worst allergies on record for this food.”
They just seem awfully proud of how severe the allergy is in their child. I am guessing they are reveling in the attention of their “special” needs child. If in fact my son had this severe an allergey (worst on record??), my job as a parent would be not expose him to potential risks until he was able to handle the problem.
No doubt homeschooling and controlled play dates would be the norm until such time as he was aware of his issues and how to protect himself.
However these parents have chosen to mainstream their child, make everyone else in the school revolve around him.
I bet the mother is pretty high maintennance also.
Like I mentioned above, we’ve been through this with our daughter. It’s not really a big deal for a kid with a peanut allergy to eat alone, or even at a table with some friends who don’t have any PB in their lunches. The parents in this case are simply being unreasonable.
And shadowhawk: Your comment is the most offensive thing I’ve read in a long time. Truly a display of “zero intelligence”.
“When I was young, I said to God, God, tell me the mystery of the universe. But God answered, that knowledge is for me alone. So I said, God, tell me the mystery of the peanut. Then God said, well, George, that’s more nearly your size.”
“When you do the common things in life in an uncommon way, you will command the attention of the world.”
-George Washington Carver
The highest priority at the school should be every child’s safety. A general objective (although not in every single case doable) of a public school is for every child to be able to obtain an education.
If this child’s allergy is so severe, I can’t imagine it being in his best interest to be in a lunchroom, no matter how stringently the school attempts to employ administrative controls. There is too much risk for error.
I would worry less about precedent-setting and PCness and more about what provides the highest probability of this child being in a safe environment at school. It seems that a reasonable accommodation could be found… but, from a practical standpoint, for that to occur in an elementary school lunchroom, I just can’t picture it. I don’t think the school’s current plan is one for success. Let’s listen to George and unlock the mystery of the peanut!
It dosent make sense to have every body else go out of their way for one person. If they all want to then that is great. that is beutifull. but if they dont you shouldnt make them. If My kid would Peanut butter Bet your butt she would BP&J’n it all the time. wether or not her school liked it. My Reason its cheap and tasty. for right around $15 Mostly bread, Shes got Lunch and breakfast for a month. Only problem is the little twit hates the stuff. thats How I know shes not mine.
I read an article the other day that said peanut allergies in children have risen by something like 500% in the past 5 years. I’m not sure of the actual percentage, it may have even been higher. In my opinion, it’s not an increase in the incidence of peanut allergies, it’s an increase in the reporting or perception of the parents. I don’t doubt that there are some people, some where, who have an allergy to peanuts. But it’s almost become an epidemic. It appears to me that peanut allergies have become the latest tool for attention-seeking “victims”. It’s on a par with the bogus “disease” ADHD.
In addition, as with any allergy, trying to avoid the source for the rest of your life is ridiculous. Without some exposure (pets are a great example), you’ll never develop an immunity. Someone posted a comment about living in a bubble, and although I know the comment was tongue-in-cheek, it really seems as if there are a great number of hypochondriacs out there who won’t be happy until their own personal bubble is expanded to include the entire country.
And I find it hard to believe that some kid who has a peanut allergy can smell an unopened jar of peanut butter across a classroom (as posted above). That poor kid has been brainwashed by a lousy parent and will be handicapped for the rest of his life because he’ll grow up being ultra-sensitive to the slightest sniffle. Get over it.
Cindy:
You don’t develop an “immunity” to something you’re allergic to. The allergy might become less severe with age, but there is no immunity.
I’m allergic to dog dander. In spite of this, I spent most of my youth around a considerable number of dogs. My allergy wasn’t quite so severe then, I’d usually just get the runny nose and whatnot. However, as I grew up, it became more severe. To this day, I can’t spend more than two minutes in a room with a dog, or I break out into extremely painful, violent sneezing fits. Not the most pleasant thing in the world.
As for creating a special peanut butter and jelly section, this seems like a clear case of the tail leading the dog. It would make more sense to put the child with the allergy in a separate area. However, I don’t think that this is exactly a precursor to an Orwellian society where the ignorant masses gather to chant “peanut butter doubleplus ungood” for five minutes ever day. As a previous poster said, a mountain is being made over a mole hill.
Cindy,
You should read up on peanut allergy. It’s not like an allergy to dust, ragweed, or pets, where you experience some discomfort but can become immune to it over time. It is more like an allergy to bee sting or shellfish that most people are aware of. Even a small exposure can trigger anaphylactic shock and cause death. It is not a bogus disease, or hypochondriasis. There is a lab test done with a sample of the person’s blood to confirm the diagnosis.
I dont Think that Cindy meant that all cases are bogus. I think what she was saying is its the latest way to get attention. in the late 80s early 90s it was Bi Pollor-Manic Depresive Then It was ADD followed by ADHD now its Peanut alergies. and WHile I see where she is coming this different in so mutch as this is not about the teachers and parents being lazy and not wanting to deal with children who are tired of sitting in a classroom and are bored and want to play. Peanut alergies do exist its a fact. I doubt that every case of it is real. and its a pretty easy way to get some fast attention.
Oh by the way. Allergy test are only rarely done any more. Even after an alegic reaction to the penicillin that I had been taken for a month put me in the hospital with a head the size of a and roughly the shape of a basket ball, all they did was not the alergy in my file. they never tested to see what else I may be alergic to. they just keep me over a few days in hospital after surgery now.
Okay, I stand corrected about the type of allergy and whether or not you can develop immunity. I did not realize that it’s like a bee allergy as you say, where people can develop an anaphylactic reaction. I feel really bad for people who have that type of allergy, and hope that they all are carrying an epinephrine injection wherever they go, if that’s available for peanut allergies.
But I still stand by my theory that, although there are some out there with the severe reaction mentioned, there are far more parents who have jumped on the peanut allergy bandwagon without merit.
And to get back to the topic at hand, in my opinion the lone child who is at risk should be the one to sit at a different table. Better yet, if I were the parent and my child’s life was in danger from being exposed to an everyday product, I would keep closer watch on her (i.e., homeschool) until she’s old enough to make responsible decisions about what she’s exposed to.
At the risk of relying too much on Darwin, it strikes me that such a severe allergy could be Mother Nature’s way of saying “Hey, kid, out of the genetic pool!”
Cindy,
My student didn’t smell the peanut butter across the room. He couldn’t even see that there was peanut butter out, since the student eating it was facing me and the jar was in a drawer. He could feel the allergic response starting in his throat. Peanut allergies can be that that severe, that fast, that deadly.
For those advocating homeschool: perhaps this isn’t a possibility for the parents, for a variety of reasons.
As for those people insinuating that people with serious allergies shouldn’t be able to have children, what’s up with you? THere are people with plenty of diseases that are severe but manageable. Would you tell a diabetic not to reproduce? How about someone with heart disease — after all, heart disease is pretty deadly and can drop you as fast as an allergic reaction. (And no, I’m not advocating such a proposal, just pointing out how pathetic that reasoning is.)
I also suspect that requiring one child to eat alone is more destructive than requiring students with peanut products in their lunches to eat together at a separate table.
As I mentioned before, this is a fairly common response by elementary schools who have students with peanut allergies.
My guess is that the parent who made the comment about it, the one who pointed out that his kid was diabetic, is leading the charge to fight it and THAT’S why the parents of the kid with allergies are pointing out how severe the allergies are.
And Travis, you are resoponsible for your own health care. Hospitals and surgeons don’t do allergy testing, allergists do. If you haven’t been tested it’s because you haven’t bothered to make an appointment with the right kind of doctor. Most allergists retest people every three to four years, so yes, they are testing more than ever now. And no one said the kids can’t eat peanut butter at the school, they just seat them away from the kid with the allergy.
Also, “jumping on the peanut bandwagon” doesn’t make sense. In order to have accommodations for a peanut allergy, you must have a doctor’s reference. People can’t just come into school and “claim” to have a problem that needs accommodations — they have to have medical documentation. You can’t fake anaphalactic shock. And while I DO believe that ADD and ADHD are overdiagnosed, I have also seen kids who are clearly ADD or ADHD and the difference between such kids when they are on and off their meds is amazing. WHat’s more, most of the drugs that work on ADD and ADHD to slow things down have a different reaction in people who do not have ADD or ADHD — it’s like being on speed if you don’t have ADD or ADHD. That’s why it sells as a street drug.
I hate to say it, but I was insinuating something MUCH LESS sensitive than that the kid shouldn’t be allowed to reproduce.
I’m suggesting that such an extreme allergy to such a common substance is nature’s way of selecting out certain genetic combinations before the carrier ever gets that far.
Why are the allergies increasing in number and severity? because we have made sure that the allergy doesn’t take its natural course, thereby privileging a defective genotype.
Not, however, that I am suggesting that we let the kid die. I’m just pointing out that such allergies may have a basis that we hesitate to look at because it isn’t sensitive to do so.
There are interesting (to a lawyer :>) liability issues at stake here. When the school attempts to protect the child by keeping peanut products away from the child as opposed to isolating the child, the school may be liable if in spite of its best efforts, the child is exposed and dies. They always could have done more.
It would seem to me that they are exposing the child to greater risk by trying to keep out peanut products than if the kid ate her lunch in the principal’s office. There are many more products with peanuts in them than just PB&J sandwiches. The school has now assumed the duty of knowing what all of these products are and keeping kids that bring them segregated from the little girl.
Once they have undertaken to exclude peanut products for this child, any parent of an allegry sufferer can demand equal precautions for his child. But it may not be necessary for a parent to request special treatment for his child. Liablity might ensue if the school failed to exclude all the products that its students are allergic to. It is forseeable that a child might be exposed and they failed to take the appropriate steps. What are the appropriate steps — well, they established the standard with the peanut kid and they need to live up to it for any allergy.
When I mentioned the Lack of allergy testing, I was trying to say you dont actualy have to be allergic to somthing to have it in you medical file. and if it is in your medical file the doctor will give the child a note. You dont need to be tested to have that doctors note you just have to tell your doctor about the reaction you experianced. so what you can have in the end Is every parent who dosent the scholl to have somthing Like say Pork. GO to the doctor explain to him that you child had a very sever reaction to some pork chops. then when school starts go back and say the smell of the pork in the school is causing my childs allergies to flare up could you please right not to the school indicating my childs severe and common aleregy.
BLAM the next you thing Know No pork. Then no sugar or wheat or what ever.
I guess what im saying is. make sure the child can take care of her\his self, in those reguards. and back off my goober peas
First, I’d like to point out that the school and parents in question reached a compromise that was reported and NOT as widely publicized as the original article. If you go to the Indianapolis Star website (http://www.indystar.com) and type the word “peanut” into the site’s search engine, the first article that pops up talks about this matter.
It’s all settled now. According to the child’s parents, all they ever asked for or wanted was a separate peanut-free table(s) in the lunchroom, which is the usual accommodation across the country for kids with food allergies. The parents refused to be interviewed for the piece that was on Fox News, and that article didn’t state what accommodationas the parents originally wanted. Consider this, it COULD be that the school (or more likely, their lawyers) went a little overboard in trying to devise a policy to accommodate this child. It’s impossible for me to say for sure, of course, but it is a possibility that the events occurred a little differently than the slant that the article took. Just something to consider….
Secondly, I would like to state a couple of things for the record here. I have a peanut-allergic child (almost 3 years old now). Until his diagnosis last May, I had no idea how deadly peanut allergies could be. I had to educate myself about his condition. To those who would doubt or mock the severity of this condition, I would respectfully ask that you do a little research before making unwarranted assumptions. The Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Network is a good place to begin your research (http://www.foodallergy.org).
Yes, it’s nerve-wracking going out to restaurants or the grocery store. When we were in line to vote back in November, we had to stop my son from picking a crushed peanut M&M off of the floor. Yikes! We carry epi-pens with us everywhere we go. This will be something my son will need to deal with for the rest of his life. Yes, it sucks.
And yet, and yet, and yet. I don’t expect grocery stores not to stock peanut products. I don’t expect that others need to go to extraordinary lengths to protect my child. He will need to learn to deal with this in the world such as it exists. Peanuts are out there. They’re tasty and nutritious. I myself lived on PB&J for most of my childhood. I don’t expect the government or schools to completely ban peanuts.
And if my child had one of the “worst cases on record” of PA, there is NO WAY I would send him to school, even a private one. For comparison, my son had an anaphylactic reaction–a severe one–that required hospitalization. His allergy is considered MODERATE, because, to our knowledge, he does not react to airborne peanut allergens. (Yes, his allergy was properly tested and diagnosed by an allergist.) My husband and I made the decision to homeschool him prior to his diagnosis. But if someone ever needed yet another good reason to homeschool, this would be it.
I also know that if my kid wasn’t PA and another parent asked me to not send PB&J to a party or school or playdate, etc., I would be happy to accommodate that request. My friends and relatives have been very eager to comply with our requests along these lines. Yes, people should get to eat what they want. But that doesn’t and shouldn’t stop willing compromises on the part of honest, rational, benevolent people. And of course, this whole thing would be a non-issue if most schools were not government-run, as I sure is obvious to most of the regular readers of this website.
Finally, I was personally sickened when I read the comments regarding Darwin and solving the problem by just giving the kid PB. I have come to expect better from my fellow readers here. And another thing about Darwin–yes, diseases may be nature’s method of deselecting genes (I’m not an expert here, so forgive me if my terminology is off a bit). But human beings have the ability to make changes to mere Mother Nature. Are you saying that anyone who has ever been saved by manmade technology (surgery, penicillin, epi-pens) shouldn’t be alive, that we’re somehow going against Mother Nature’s brilliant plan? I hope nobody would seriously argue that. It’s a ridiculous notion.
kab: Interesting comments about the lawyers’ point of view. It sounds like, if the liablity goes that far in protecting those with severe peanut allergies, it could get to the point that all they’ll be able to serve is bread and water. And that could eventually translate to other, less severe allergies. I have lots of cats, and it’s rare that I wear anything that doesn’t have a cat hair somewhere on it. If I were a teacher in the scenario you propose, a kid could sneeze in my classroom and his parents could sue the school.
Jenn: Well-said. You seem very knowledgeable and realistic about your child’s allergy, and I wish you and your family the best. It’s got to be difficult.
Peanuts are used in hundreds of food products that you wouldn’t think of as containing them. Peanut oil is used in preparing many more foods. It would be fairly difficult for a school cafeteria to keep all traces of peanut out of the food they serve, but it’s frankly impossible for them to ensure that no one brings in peanut-based foods. If a 6 year old kid is so allergic that smelling peanut butter is life-threatening, then entering the lunch room at all is risking his life. His parents should home-school if possible until he is old enough to recognize the onset of symptoms and immediately deal with them. If he must go to school, he should eat a lunch, brought from home, in a separate room. Yes, it’s a little hard on his social life, but it’s a lot better than death.
The best theory I’ve seen about the apparent rise in allergies is that it’s due to increased cleanliness and hygiene. The human immune system evolved to continually deal with invasions by bacteria, viruses, and parasites. Now, real threats are so rare that some people’s immune systems over-react to foreign substances that aren’t really a threat at all.
Oh now heres an itneresting problem. once the child is old enough to notice and treat his alergies would he be suspened arested and expeled for using the drug that he need to prevent is Shock? Wouldnt that be considered a drug by most zero tolerance policies?
Absolutely correct, Travis. In the vast majority of school systems he would be in violation of their drug policies to carry his own epi-pen or alternate delivery system. California just passed a law so asthmatic children can carry their own inhalers (after some magnificent paperwork filing) but to my knowledge nobody has addressed allergy medication.
Cancel Recess and lunch than. its just too dangerous to let them out of the classroom. Of course if they are allergic to mold or somthing.
You know one could take stories from this website and make a movie, it would be pretty scary. course you would have to get Corry Hane and Feldman to be in it.
No comments from the peanut gallery, please
The blogosphere is all agog over the recently-released report on the disputed CBS story about President Bush�s National Guard service), which details rampant dishonesty, bias, and unprofessional behavior at the network. While the poli-bloggers focus on…
No comments from the peanut gallery, please
The blogosphere is all agog over the recently-released report on the disputed CBS story about President Bush�s National Guard service, which details rampant dishonesty, bias, and unprofessional behavior at the network. While the poli-bloggers focus on …
No comments from the peanut gallery, please
The blogosphere is all agog over the recently-released report on the disputed CBS story about President Bush�s National Guard service, which details rampant dishonesty, bias, and unprofessional behavior at the network. While the poli-bloggers focus on …
Some people have stated that a peanut allergy might be a marked for “a defective genotype.”
I thought I’d point out that allergies are an adaptive strategy to parasites, and that people from areas where internal parasites are common do not tend to display allergy symptoms. In fact, doctors have had some success with treating severe cases of allergies with benign parasites. Likewise, allergies are not as severe an adaptive strategy as sickle cell anemia, which helps protect against malaria.
Perhaps part of the reason there is such a jump in cases of severe nut allergies is that we live in such a clean society.
My boss’s son has a severe allergy to both peanuts and milk. From the time he was very young, he was taught what NOT to eat, and I will say that some children can be taught at a young age what not to ingest or handle. I saw evidence first hand when he was at my work. Having said that, there are some children who are “grown” and you can’t tell them anything. I do know that for the parents of such a child, this type of allergy is their worst fear.
I don’t agree at the very least with “shadowhawk” but maybe WE are getting tired of the P.C. people doing everything in reverse.
I don’t agree at the very least with “shadowhawk” but maybe WE are getting tired of the P.C. people doing everything in reverse.
There was a case in NYC where a woman nearly died at a restaruant because the cook switched to peanut oil. She had spoken to the owner about her allergy and was told they didn’t use peanuts; as a result she felt betrayed and thought of suing.
I don’t know how a parent or society can protect people by implying that the world will evolve around some uncommon need; especially when their very lives are at stake. People can’t handle anything non-standard without error, that’s why there are so many mis-diagnosis’s and children who are failing in the system. Imagine going back to the days of typewriters and every mistake resulting in a death. If it’s life and death the boy in the bubble, needs a bubble.
It’s a simple logistics problem - isolate the ONE person with the problem during lunch, or segregate the entire student body on the basis of whether or not they have a fairly common food.
Given the constant grousing about school funding, the schools have a fiscal responsibility to favor the cheapest option, and that is to segregate out the one kid with the problem. Do we cancel gym class because one kid has a heart condition, or simply have him sit it out?
Boo hoo, little Jimmy can’t be exposed to peanuts! Let’s keep the mean nasty peanut-eaters away from him until he moves on to middle school! But wait, now Susie is allergic to milk! And poor Freddy is allergic to vegetables! Hurry up and make more special tables!
Better idea: Jimmy eats alone. It would be really hilarious if Susie hid peanuts in his tuna sandwich.
“You can’t fake anaphalactic shock.”
Except that’s not necessarily true. Well, I guess you can’t deliberately fake an anaphalactic shock episode, but you can certainly fool your body into doing so. This would be akin to the placebo effect (with peanuts used as the placebo, obviously). If you believe something strongly enough, your body can be triggered by your brain to opt for a certain response. Like shock. Of course, this doesn’t happen for everybody because I’m guessing that a lot of people do not believe something strongly enough (that is really false) in order for a particular reaction to trigger…but it happens. Certainly this happens a lot with food allergies. If you strongly believe that you are allergic to a certain food, you will have allergic symptoms.
One of my friends believes that she’s allergic to peanuts. She says that the rational side of her thinks that this is because she’s always disliked peanuts (the taste? I dunno) and so fooled herself into believing that she was allergic to them so that she had a legitimate reason for not eating them. Even though she can tell herself this is the reason, believing something in theory and believing something in your gut is very different. She’s told herself that she’s allergic to peanuts ever since she was little; and now she can’t help but feel her throat close up whenever she gets around ‘em.
I think that I’m allergic to certain fruits–cantaloupes, melons. My lips and the inside of mouth always itch very much whenever I eat them (it’s not a major allergy, if it is one, so I don’t avoid the fruits altogether). Honestly, I think that the itching has gotten much worse because my mind is so fixated on it that it can’t help but happen.
So yes, the placebo effect can have a very strong effect on people. Mind over matter truly does work in many cases.
I sincerely hope that most of you (not all) are not parents of any of the kids that will be going to my sons school in the fall. The lack of compassion for the possible death of a child in unbelievable!!! Believe it or not your lack of compassion and caring goes on to your kids! Maybe horrible non-caring parents is what leads to kids in schools not caring whether their classmates live or die! This board is a sad state of society. Only a minor fraction of your postings care. SAD SAD SAD
School only lasts 6 hours. Can anybody do without peanut butter for 6 hours to reduce the risk to another little kid? It’s just a snack, for God’s sake. They tell you what kind of tablet to bring, shoes to wear, etc. Why can’t the school ask for this one little accomodation to avoid killing a helpless young child? When he is older, he can provide the kind of peanut avoidance his parents have been providing for him.
Quote: We can only hope one of the other kids do the school a favor and slip this kid some peanut butter to eliminate the problem.
Posted by: Michael Wasiljov at January 5, 2005 10:03 PM
I’m all for not having compassion to to stupid people, who do stupid shit. Like for people who live in Tornado alley in a trailers saying “Oh we never thought this would ever happen to us” they have it coming. Or people who live in Florida and never expect a hurricane.
But You you cross a line with that comment.
Killing someone by taking advantage of a weakness should only be used in a war. Unless you imply our elementary schools are now battlegrounds, that line is complete bullshit and I wished you had an allergy that deadly and see what you would think of it. I have allergy’s to chocolate, dust mites, cats, and a bunch more. And I find those things EVERYWHERE meaning I have to be careful. If I were in that grade I would be dumb as hell, how can you expect a kid to avoid something when he doesn’t know what allergy even means?
You do have to move the Peanuts away, yes this kid needs his own lunch table where his friends can come to him on days they don’t have peanuts, and for christ’s sake think before saying something that retarded again.
See no compassion to retarded people. Only given to people who had a horrible tragedy that could not have been prevented (9/11). It’s as simple as that.
@Shadowhawk: Damn, man, what the hell is wrong with you? Too much Darwin Awards? Yes, they are funny, but they should not be a way of life!
http://www.darwinawards.com
A link to the page. Funny, but not to be taken too serously.
On topic, just let the kid eat in a classroom.
my little brother has a severe peanut allergy. his school and the parents of the children that attend his school have no porblem accomodating his allergies. i really can’t think of a nastier thing to say then that a child with severe allergies should not be allowed to reproduce. thet is closed minded and a warped way of thinking. it’s just a sick thing to say. shadow hawk,you really don’t belong in the “real world” if you can’t cope with a 6yr old with allergies.
Shadowhawk…..you might have children someday..or grandchildren who could be food allergic. Wonder what you will do and say then. You obviously hate yourself and feel you are stupid. Stop taking out your personal frustrations on the innocent and grow up.
I just want everyone who had a negative comment about peanut allergies to imagine that their child was the person with the deadly allergy and think how they would feel if their childs life was in danger over peanut butter. My child is severly allergic and if he even smells peanut butter he has a reaction that could possibly kill him. And I hope that my child never has to meet any one as insensitive as you.
I am replying to the most ignorant and heartless being that goes by the name shadowhawk. Obviously this being believes he is Jesus, and is better than everyone else. I cannot believe you could actually tell all these parents that they are messing up the gene pool. I am a parent of 2 children with airborne peanut allergies,and I would not change it for anything. I always think things could be worse. Parents of children with allergies did not wish this,or have messed up genes. I believe having children with allergies has been a humbling experience, and for the sick jerks that think that our genes are messed up ,all I have to say is that this shadowhawk being should do society a favor and take his or her sick ,ignorant,thoughtless ,self out of society forever .