Kids get probation for throwing bananas at allergic teacher

[jpak]

https://www.wmtw.com/article/kids-get-probation-for-throwing-bananas-at-allergic-teacher/28586794

COLUMBUS, Ohio —An Ohio school district says students endangered a teacher by intentionally exposing her to bananas despite knowing she is severely allergic to the fruit.

WSYX-TV reports the teacher at the Starling K-8 school in Columbus went into anaphylactic shock and ended up at the hospital after three seventh graders smeared bananas on her door and threw the fruit at her in class last November. A sign on the door had warned students that the room was supposed to be a "banana-free zone."

The station reports the students were charged with assault in juvenile court and have since served probation.

Columbus City Schools spokesman Scott Wortman says the district hopes it was a "teachable moment" for the students involved and others about "the potentially life-threatening consequences of food allergies."

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[Sherman A1]

1. Way too little

The little snits should have to for all the medical bills, lost wages and for her suffering.

[lpbk2713]

6. If it was me I'd be sure the parents paid the uncovered bills and lost wages.

And any other out of pocket expenses.

[customerserviceguy]

2. I never heard of a banana allergy. n/t

[TeamPooka]

7. Thanks for bringing that viewpoint. nt

[customerserviceguy]

21. I wasn't denying it

I just had never heard of one. And it wasn't a "viewpoint" on the issue in the OP. Bullying should never be tolerated in our schools, whether it's of fellow students or any of the school staff, that's my viewpoint.

[Dr Hobbitstein]

8. I can assure you it exists. nt

[Blue_true]

14. There are allergies of all sorts.

Ever heard of vinegar allergies, Nitrogen allergies, chlorophyll allergies, water allergies. The list is endless. There are people that are allergic to every substance, with their reactions ranging from mild to serious complications.

I am lucky, the only thing that I know that I am allergic to is mosquito saliva, and I can control my exposure to that.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

29. Water allergy?

It's hard to imagine someone with that one surviving past age 5 or so.

[Blue_true]

42. Look it up. It is a real thing and very serious for some people. nt

[cwydro]

30. "Water allergies?" How is that a thing?

Truly confused here.

[Lancero]

33. It's a easier way of saying aquagenic urticaria, as inaccurate as it is.

[cwydro]

34. Sorry, that tells me nothing

I really don’t understand an allergy to water.

[sakabatou]

36. This may help

[muriel_volestrangler]

40. "It's generally accepted that water allergy is not simply an allergy to pure water"

but they don't know what it is an allergy to, dissolved in the water.

[Blue_true]

43. It is real, look it up. nt

[muriel_volestrangler]

41. "nitrogen allergies" is something that must be misnamed, too

Presumably it's an allergy to a specific compound containing nitrogen. Nitrogen gas is famously unreactive, and famously 80% of the atmosphere. Nitrogen atoms are in all proteins. So it's some allergy that someone named badly. That would be why no-one's heard of it.

[Blue_true]

44. Some people have body chemistries, on the skin, that convert

the gas to nitrate under some conditions. Maybe my term was inaccurate, but the problem is a real one for a small number of people.

[redwitch]

15. It's a latex allergy.

Or at least somehow related.DIL is allergic to latex, bananas and avocados.

[customerserviceguy]

20. I'm certainly familiar with latex allergies

I have a slight one myself, but avocados and bananas don't affect me.

[Blue_true]

45. Is your DIL allergic to Aloe Vera?

The leaf has a natural latex in it and if the juice is not harvested properly, some of that latex ends up in the juice or even aloe vera gels.

[redwitch]

46. I don't know.

She told me that her latex, banana and avocado allergies were all tied together but she never mentioned aloe.

[Blue_true]

47. Latex occurs naturally in some plants, aloe is one of them.

If she has never been exposed to aloe, she may want to be careful when she does. As I pointed out, the amount of latex in some aloe products vary due to different levels of efforts to seperate it before harvesting the desired aloe product.

[phylny]

37. Our oldest daughter is allergic to bananas

Not to the extent that this teacher was, but she is. Banana allergies often go hand-in-hand with ragweed allergies, or so the doctor has told her.

[malaise]

3. I can identify with this since my mom was severely allergic

to bananas.
For this reason dad would buy us bananas in the market after our morning walk or swimming. Years ago I realized all of us like bananas before they are too ripe because we never had ripe bananas in our home.

[msongs]

4. teachable moment next time they will use more bananas to finish her nt

[Blue_true]

16. Yes. They sound like little monsters.

Don't be surprised to see one or more of them up on murder charges one day, and the incident with the teacher will be mentioned.

I was just reading an article at lunch today about the murder of a girl in WVA. The dead girl had two friends that she was really close to for a while, then they had a falling out. Two of the girls planned and carried out the murder of the girl and dumped her body in a wooded area of another state.

Now comes the really sad and no steroid part. Police treated the girl's disappearance as a missing person issue. Her two fiends talked about her on social media, one more than the second. Finally one of the girls had a nervous breakdown and told her parents then police that she and her friend had murdered the girl. She led police to the dumped body and lab later confirmed that the corpse was the missing girl. Now this is the disheartening part, the second girl kept up a front with people and on social media like nothing happened, even posting memorials about the murdered girl. Police finally had enough to arrest the second girl and she ultimately was convicted and sentenced as an adult to life in prison. Guess what she posted as the trap spring on her "we did go on three". Her and her friend had plotted to start stabbing the other girl on the count of three

One girl that was involved in the murder showed remorse and could not go on with a lie. The second girl seemed perfectly ok with living like the murder never happened. All three girls looked like classic middleclass girls, straight teeth, nice hair, well kept, ect. When the murder and body dumping took place, all three were just 16.

[diva77]

5. I wonder whether their parents are Trumpanzees -

[Blue_true]

17. I bet that they are. nt

[Cairycat]

9. What is it about food allergies

That riles people up so much that they do stuff like this? How is the teacher's allergy disturbing her students in any way? I see this as just a little further down the spectrum from parents in the school I work at continuing to send peanut butter sandwiches when we had a student with a severe allergy.
Why would you want to endanger lives like that?

[KT2000]

11. It is all allergy/sensitivities

that bother some people. As we are learning about the people in this country, some are just cruel and mean - for a laugh.

[Blue_true]

18. Some people just love hurting other people.

There are people that are just natural psychopaths, the mere presence of them in society insures that they will hurt someone else, just to see a person suffer.

[tblue37]

23. About 30 years ago a kindergartener in our town, a little girl, died in school because of

exposure to peanut butter. It is not just a minor inconvenience.

[KT2000]

10. Adults do it too

A woman was allergic to perfumes so her co-workers sprayed her desk and area with perfume. She eventually had to quit her job because people would not stop being assholes. This type of thing happens often and people become unemployable because of it.

[Blue_true]

19. Your company should have put up hidden cameras and fired each person caught.

I would bet you that it was maybe two or three people that are likely known to be assholes.

[A Brand New World]

12. I know this teacher.

Her dad (now deceased) was my former boss. No one deserves this type of treatment from a student or from anyone for that matter. They deserved more of a punishment than probation.

[Hekate]

13. 7th grade is particularly awful. I remember it as a kind of hell, and I'm 70 now. However...

...most kids seem to outgrow being mean, but I do think it is necessary for adults to take a hand in the worst cases, this being one. A human being almost died because they were being smartasses, and for that they deserved to be slapped upside the head (metaphorically speaking). I hope that being charged with assault and made to serve probation served that purpose.

[dflprincess]

22. The one thing that makes me hope there is no such thing as reincarnation

is that I never want to be in that 12-13 year old age range again. And while I had a few mean girl tormentors I didn't have it as bad as some kids did/do (at least I had a good group of friends).

I hope these little creeps have parents who won't make excuses for them.

[Karadeniz]

24. Oops...you should read the Ian Stevenson books!

[dflprincess]

25. I confess I had to Google him

And I'm still not sure if I ever read his books. But I have read others on the subject, including ones about little kids who remember past lives. I do find them fascinating & I do lean toward believing reincarnation is what we do.

[Initech]

26. WTF is wrong with people right now?

[3catwoman3]

27. Damn good question.

I had no idea that were so many miscreants in the US.

[Initech]

28. Yeah when I was in 7th grade, the worst thing we did was TP a drive way.

Ww never did anything that could threaten anyone's life or put us in juvenile hall. Never. What is happening in society right now?

[smirkymonkey]

35. I have no idea.

The world has become a much crueler place than it was when I was growing up. Kids are such little sociopaths these days.

[cwydro]

32. What is it with Ohio?

So many stories coming out of there.

[Mike_DuBois]

38. Why are so many astronauts from Ohio?

What is it about the place that makes folks go to such lengths to get away?

[Kid Berwyn]

39. Murderous little shits should be in jail. And their parents.

They knew the teacher was sensitive and still intentionally exposed her. Parents have raised, not monsters, but murderers.

Allergies are life and death. About 14 years ago, a local public school kindergarten teacher with an allergy to sesame seeds — ACCIDENTALLY — ate one that was an ingredient in a pizza crust. She went into shock, suffered from lack of O2, was hospitalized for over six months, still suffers from partial paralysis, and has not taught since. Our schools lost a great teacher.