a friend of mine is having an awful time trying to get her son's school to go peanut free to acomadate his life threatning allergy. i was hoping someone may have experience or advice on this problem. it seems that most involved are worried more about their own inconvinience than this little boys life....
posted by:
|
Canada
|
-
Re: peanut free schools?
Sat, September 16, 2006 - 12:53 PMI don't know much about peanut allergies. Is she trying to get the cafeteria to be peanut-free? Can her son not be in the vicinity of peanuts?
Well-written letters with concrete examples of why her request is reasonable, backed up with well-researched facts and recommendations by experts, cc'd to a variety of decision makers, might help. -
-
Re: peanut free schools?
Sat, September 16, 2006 - 1:03 PMthis little boy almost died from playing with lego that another child touched after eating a granola bar. the family wants the whole school peanut free, they will only make his classroom safe, this means he can't play on the outdoor equipment ,drink from the water fountain,or play in the gym, totally unreasonable. she written lots of letters,met with the superintendant of schools,they wont do anything but the bare minimum. -
-
Re: peanut free schools?
Sat, September 16, 2006 - 1:06 PMWow, that's horrible. That will be a tough one. How would they enforce it?
Here's a NYTimes article about the subject:
query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html
-
-
-
Re: peanut free schools?
Sat, September 16, 2006 - 6:29 PMMy husband works at a school that is completely peanut-free (all nuts, in fact). He's a TA at the school our boy used to attend, and our son was sustained almost entirely by peanut butter sandwhiches. So when a boy moved to his class with a peanut allergy and the classroom went peanut-free, we asked that our son change rooms. They told us that the whole school was going peanut-free soon, so it wouldn't make a difference.
We ended up switching him to a different school, for a could of reasons, the food limitation being one of them. Autistic children are very self-selective eaters, and I can't imagine what he would have eaten if not some peanut product. I don't know what made the school decide to go completely peanut free. They send a list home to my husband every year saying these are things that you CAN bring, and these are things that you CAN'T. Nothing with any nut of any kind.
We are in New York state, what state is your friend in? -
-
Re: peanut free schools?
Sun, September 17, 2006 - 11:07 AMWe are in British Columbia in Canada. My son is autistic as well, we gradually switched him over to cheese sandwiches during the summer, the boy with the allergy is in my younger son's class,so we didnt want to risk cross contamination. This is why i have no sympathy for the parents who are complaining about going peanut free, if we can do it with Shilo, they can surely deal with it. When it come to my children's safety, theres nothing i wont do, which is why im sympathetic to this boy's life threatning situation. -
-
Re: peanut free schools?
Mon, September 18, 2006 - 7:03 AMHonestly, I can see both sides of this issue. I suppose that if it were my kid with the allergy, I'd do everything I could to keep them as far away from peanuts as possible, and plead with the school to go completely peanut-free, too. But on the other hand, lots of kids are allergic to lots of things. Some people have reactions to shellfish (not that you find that in public schools all that often), some have life-threatening allergies to strawberries or peaches. As soon as the school acquieses to the parents of the peanut allergy kid, do they have to give in to all other parents whose kids are allergic to things? Pretty soon, all the school will allow is beans and rice.
Plus there's the matter of the rest of the world. Eventually, the kid will graduate and go to college, where a whole campus will certainly not go peanut-free, nor will any workplace. Theoretically, by the time a person is that old, they'll be aware enough of the severity of their allergy to be able to manage it on their own without needing additional intervention.
I'm just rambling at this point. My point was that I can see both sides, and it's just a crummy situation all around. I wish your friend the best. -
-
Re: peanut free schools?
Mon, September 18, 2006 - 12:10 PMi think all life threatning allergies should be acomidated, as would any other life threatning situation at school. of course you can't keep all dangers away forever, but why can't the school community help each other keep these little guys safe as long as possible? one child's lunch is not worth risking another child's life. as far as when they are grown, of course you can't protect them from every danger forever, but i just wanna help this kid make it through elementary school alive......
-
-
-
