Parents Protest Over Girl's Peanut Allergy

[The Straight Story]

Parents Protest Over Girl's Peanut Allergy
Controversy Erupts At Edgewater Elementary Public School

EDGEWATER, Fla. -- A first-grade student at Edgewater Elementary School is struggling with a rare life-threatening peanut allergy, and it's causing a controversy among her classmates' parents.

VIDEO: Parents Plan Protest
READ: School Letter To Parents

"We're not talking about she will break out in a rash. We are talking about she will die, stop breathing," said Tracey Bailey, the mother of the 6-year-old girl. The condition affects only 2 percent of the population.

Because of the condition, first-graders at the school are required to wash their hands and rinse out their mouths to avoid bringing peanut particles into the classroom.

http://www.clickorlando.com/education/27139755/detail.html

[slackmaster]

1. Parents outraged because of the school requiring kids to practice basic hygiene?

:crazy:

ETA my brother has such an allergy to peanuts. It was really bad when my mom discovered it, when he was a toddler. Peanut butter was my favorite food at the time. We couldn't keep any peanut products in the house at all. When I moved out to attend college, the first things I bought for my dorm room were a jar of PB and a loaf of bread.

He's in his late 40s now, and the allergy has subsided. He can actually pick nuts other than peanuts out of a can of mixed nuts and eat them without any problems. He can eat food that has been fried in peanut oil. (He deep-fried a turkey in it the last time I was at his house.) :-)

[damntexdem]

2. Eye doan wannem lernin my kids that there high fallutin hijean.

Turninem into a buncha namby pamby peanut haters.

[Sherman A1]

3. The peanut allergy is exceptionally serious business

and Yes, the kid could die. As for her classmates practicing basic hygiene, well in this case Too Bad, just do it.

[Warren DeMontague]

4. My right to not be slightly inconvenienced trumps your right to survive.

Apparently.

[abelenkpe]

5. My kids school has a no peanut rule

cause one of the kids has a peanut allergy. It's irritating because my skinny son eats maybe six things: black beans, rice, strawberries and peanut butter on square crackers. Little guy is stubborn about trying new things. But gotta say, he can eat those crackers at home. Peanut allergies are serious stuff and while it is work to adhere to such a rule it's not the end of the world.

[gkhouston]

7. Sunbutter (made from sunflower seeds) tastes just like peanut butter.

If your little guy really wants to have peanut butter for lunch, get in touch with your school and see if they will allow the substitution. The name brand I get is called Sunbutter (original, eh?) and I've seen it at Target next to the nut butters and at Kroger with the organic products. Some brands of sunbutter have the "weasel words" (may contain peanuts) but Sunbutter doesn't. Someone should give the allergic kid a heads up about the sunbutter, though, because the stuff smells just like peanut butter. My kid's allergic to peanuts and won't try the sunbutter because the smell of peanuts has unpleasant associations for her, but my husband and I enjoy being able to eat "peanut butter".

on edit: my daughter has tried tiny bites of the Sunbutter on occasion--it is safe--it's just the peanutty smell that gets to her. I don't use quinoa flour for the same reason.

[bluestateguy]

6. I once knew a parent of a child who had to follow similar classroom rules due to a classmate

They got fed up with the multiplying list of rules and yanked their daughter out of the school and put her in another school after the first semester.

It's a bad situation for everybody all around. It's one thing to say no peanuts allowed in school, but all of these other rules just seem excessive, and at some point you have to have a gentle conversation about home schooling.

[Liquorice]

8. When they take their child out in public, do they ask everyone

to gargle and wash their hands before getting near her? I think wiping down all the children and having them rinse their mouths out several times a day is excessive. Imagine if you had to do that over and over again every day at your job because a coworker had a peanut allergy. You'd get awfully tired of it. I understand trying to protect the girl, but it's impossible to make a safe environment for her out in the real world if her allergy is that bad.

[jillan]

9. My daughter had a kid in her class for many years that had a latex allergy. All the parents of the

other children did all we could to keep latex out of those classrooms.

It's just human decency.