Peanut allergy stirs controversy at Florida school

[pstokely]

Source: Reuters

ORLANDO, Florida (Reuters) – Some public school parents in Edgewater, Florida, want a first-grade girl with life-threatening peanut allergies removed from the classroom and home-schooled, rather than deal with special rules to protect her health, a school official said.

"That was one of the suggestions that kept coming forward from parents, to have her home-schooled. But we're required by federal law to provide accommodations. That's just not even an option for us," said Nancy Wait, spokeswoman for the Volusia County School District.

Wait said the 6-year-old's peanut allergy is so severe it is considered a disability under the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20110322/lf_nm_life/us_peanut_allergy#mwpphu-container

[truthisfreedom]

1. It's called bringing your lunch from home.

Seriously.

[nosmokes]

4. No it's not. Seriously.

The kid is so allergic to nuts that simply sitting next to a kid eating a PB&J could send her into shock.

[pstokely]

35. Maybe even smelling peanuts from a distance

nt

[TalkingDog]

31. BZZZZZZZZ: Life Fail

I dated a guy who couldn't even hold a sunflower seed in his open palm. His skin would blister. Needless to say, he couldn't eat them either.

If you can smell peanut butter, that means the molecules are floating through the air. If you have a severe allergy that would be equivalent to sitting to people blowing mustard gas your way.

If you think that can be fixed with somebody bringing lunch from home, you may need to sit down and do a critical examination of how killing somebody comes down to a matter of convenience for other people.

[bluestateguy]

2. The accomodations being demanded here go beyond a reasonable level

And they need to homeschool her, even if that means the state provides her with a voucher to do so.

[hifiguy]

44. Agreed

There is no sane reason that every person working in this building and every one of their _family members_ should have to change normal behaviors to accommodate one person when alternatives are available. That is ridiculous.

[aSpeckofDust]

3. I have an idea.

They could keep her home and set up a live streaming webcam in class. She'll get the lesson and if she has a question, she can send an IM. The teacher can assign a top student to help answer those questions the teacher can't get to right now. The parents or a friend(classmate or not) could bring her classwork to the teacher each day.


Now, poke holes in this idea :D

[harmonicon]

6. school is about socialization. what you suggest is frightening. nt.

[aSpeckofDust]

10. We must have gone through a different school system.

My time was spent getting robbed and bullied while I tried to learn.

[harmonicon]

19. maybe we did, I don't know.

I went to a normal ol' public school. Sure, I got bullied (never robbed - toys broken as a kid though), but that's part of learning first hand that some people are nasty. The actual learning about the subjects taught is, time-wise, very little of what public school is. When working with others, you learn how to work together with other people. You learn how to make friends, and you also learn ugly things about class systems and social status, but those things are part of life forever.

[eppur_se_muova]

53. Silly, that's what socialization means!

Especially under Regressive governments.

[Lance_Boyle]

16. Socialization sometimes involves nuts. This girl is going to be unsocialized forever.

It is plainly unreasonable for an entire school to have to meet these stupid demands for one child's allergies. That child's allergies are the problem, not the school. Reasonable accommodation is reasonable. What is being demanded on the allergic child's behalf is not.

[harmonicon]

20. I don't think I was suggesting that, was I?

I think I was responding to one suggestion, not deciding the entire case.

[The Backlash Cometh]

28. How much socializing will a child do if she continually goes into shock whenever she

breathes in someone's lunch breath?

[harmonicon]

29. whatever she'd do if that happened elsewhere in life.

Is this person going to live inside a bubble forever?

[The Backlash Cometh]

30. I don't have the answers.

It would be nice to believe that she could develop immunities from the exposure. But I wouldn't want to test that theory out on my own kid.

[TalkingDog]

37. Socialization with a peer group is overrated.

Socialization with adults is much more important. Children don't grow up to be kids. They grow up to be adults.

There are some examinations of the childhood environments of geniuses and other talented people that suggest limited contact with a large peer group forced them to foster their creativity and talent. That would suggest that more contact with a larger peer group correlates (but does not necessarily cause)a flattening of creativity, intelligence and talent.

The things you want a child to learn from interacting with other people can be learned from and applied to a group of adults. Unless you are aware of a specific benefit that socializing with a mass of 200+/- people imparts, your argument is flawed.

(even though I think she should be able to go to school if she wishes to)

[NashVegas]

52. Socialization? Ha

Socially speaking, school is about taking children out of their homes where they're loved and accepted (in normal circumstances) and break them into playing defined roles, by throwing them into a vat of toxic waste.

1) The adjustive or adaptive function. Schools are to establish fixed habits of reaction to authority. This, of course, precludes critical judgment completely. It also pretty much destroys the idea that useful or interesting material should be taught, because you can't test for reflexive obedience until you know whether you can make kids learn, and do, foolish and boring things.

2) The integrating function. This might well be called "the conformity function," because its intention is to make children as alike as possible. People who conform are predictable, and this is of great use to those who wish to harness and manipulate a large labor force.

3) The diagnostic and directive function. School is meant to determine each student's proper social role. This is done by logging evidence mathematically and anecdotally on cumulative records. As in "your permanent record." Yes, you do have one.

4) The differentiating function. Once their social role has been "diagnosed," children are to be sorted by role and trained only so far as their destination in the social machine merits - and not one step further. So much for making kids their personal best.

5) The selective function. This refers not to human choice at all but to Darwin's theory of natural selection as applied to what he called "the favored races." In short, the idea is to help things along by consciously attempting to improve the breeding stock. Schools are meant to tag the unfit - with poor grades, remedial placement, and other punishments - clearly enough that their peers will accept them as inferior and effectively bar them from the reproductive sweepstakes. That's what all those little humiliations from first grade onward were intended to do: wash the dirt down the drain.

6) The propaedeutic function. The societal system implied by these rules will require an elite group of caretakers. To that end, a small fraction of the kids will quietly be taught how to manage this continuing project, how to watch over and control a population deliberately dumbed down and declawed in order that government might proceed unchallenged and corporations might never want for obedient labor.

http://www.spinninglobe.net/againstschool.htm

[Little Star]

13. This is a good idea. She can interact via live cam during class time..

and invite kids over to her peanut free house after school for social time.

The rest of the kids have rights too and that includes having something they like (that is healthy for them) for lunch and snacks. There are ways to adapt in a fair manner to all.

I heard one mother talking about her child with health problems being a vegan. Peanut free class rooms now make it hard for this mother's first grade child to enjoy her snack and lunch time. The child is a picky eater to begin with and now does not want to go to school.

If the other kids become resentful because they can't have peanut butter it will just make the poor allergic kid feel like a out-cast.

It is a difficult situation. But there are ways around it.

[mcar]

33. What if both parents work?

You're suggesting that one parent quit his/her job to stay home with the child so the child can be homeschooled and not interfere with the other kids' inalienable rights to eat peanut butter crackers.

Should the school district make up the lost salary? The way the FL legislature is cutting the education budget, they'd probably have to fire another couple teachers to do that.

There's no easy answer to this issue. But, schools are required to make all kinds of accommodations for other health/developmental problems in children so it seems to me that they can solve this one as well.

[WatsonT]

48. Send her to France

for some reason Peanut Butter never really caught on there.

[jtuck004]

5. "If I had a daughter who had a problem, I would not ask everyone else to change their lives to fit

my life," said Burr." (form the article)

Bet a $1000 he would be the first one to want you to alter your life to fit his, and to pay for it as well.

The whole point of public schools is not so neighbors can treat it like their own private one, kicking out kids who
have special needs, or the tall ones, or the short ones, or the dark ones...

It's to provide an education to the public. They are free to go elsewhere, or start their own private school
where there kids never have to wash their hands again. Maybe to Japan, where they have to worry about living
day-to-day and have to depend on anyone that can help, not just someone who has different things to overcome.

And you have things to overcome, yes indeedy, Mr. Burr.

Pathetic self-righteous selfish bigots.

[midnight]

7. I can imagine all the trouble parents have with this one....

The economy is in the toilet and peanut butter and jelly is economical.... So it's good that we have a law that will protect this child's rights.. Now we need to back it up and fund it..

[Sherman A1]

8. I have lived with a nut allergy all my life

not a severe as this one, but bad enough. There has to be some way to accommodate all involved here.

[Little Star]

14. Are comments #3 & #13 a possible way to accommodate?...

Those things sounded reasonable to me. Just asking what your opinion would be about something along those lines.

[Sherman A1]

22. Perhaps a near term start

School is certainly more than just book learnin' and there will need to be a means toward socialization as well. I think it unfair to force the entire group to stay away from a viable food group, but this is certainly a life threatening allergy and I suspect that it would not be a sight their parents would like their children to see should this young lady go into an allergic reaction in front of them.

There may need to be some separation for a bit for the benefit of both, but there should also be a means for the kids to spend time together.

There are no easy answers to this one.

[pstokely]

36. How common are peanut allergies that severe?

If she doesn't go into shock at school, she'll probably go into shock somewhere like a mall or another public

[Sherman A1]

54. Frankly, I don't know

Like everything else I am sure there are varying degrees of sensitivity to the allergen. Not being a medical professional, I can only speak to my own experiences and I have to ingest the allergen to have an effect. That said, it can be easy to do as one never is absolutely sure about how food out (particularly baked goods) are prepared. Cooked in peanut oil and things can get real exciting, really quickly. In my case it only requires a taste, not even swallowed and life is getting very unpleasant. We have Peanut butter in the house for my wife, but she uses plasticware and usually consumes it when I am not around.

[Corgigal]

9. Why doesn't the community have a fund raiser

and purchase a service dog? I mean come on people get creative. This problem can be solved and a young girl can go to school with her peers.

http://www.angelservicedogs.com/

[sendero]

11. All of her teachers should...

.. have an epi pen on hand and be trained in its use.

[JCMach1]

12. This may not qualify under ADA given a recent ruling

...The Eighth Circuit has suggested that the answer may be no; in Land v. Baptist Medical Center, 164 F.3d 423 (8th Cir. 1999), minor Megan Land had suffered two allergic reactions to peanuts or peanut derivatives at her daycare center, which thereafter (perhaps fearing litigation) declined to provide daycare for Land. The parents filed an ADA claim, arguing, inter alia, that the peanut allergy met the definition of physical impairment quoted above. The Eighth Circuit said:

For purposes of the ADA, a physical impairment is defined as a physiological disorder affecting body systems such as digestion and respiration, and we agree that Megan's allergy fits within this definition. We also agree that eating and breathing are major life activities within the contemplation of the ADA. The pivotal question thus becomes whether Megan's allergy substantially limits her ability to eat or breathe, and we conclude that it does not. A major life activity is substantially limited if an individual is unable to "perform a basic function that the average person in the general population can perform" or is significantly restricted in "the condition, manner, or duration under which can perform a particular major life activity as compared to an average person in the general population." Whether a major life activity is substantially limited is an individualized and fact-specific inquiry. In this case, Megan's allergy is not substantially limiting because, as her doctor stated, Megan's allergy impacts her life only "a little bit." Although Megan cannot eat foods containing peanuts or their derivatives, the record does not suggest that Megan suffers an allergic reaction when she consumes any other kind of food or that her physical ability to eat is in any way restricted. Additionally, the record shows Megan's ability to breathe is generally unrestricted, except for the limitations she experienced during her two allergic reactions. Thus, although Megan's allergic reaction to peanut-laden foods affects her eating and breathing, her allergy does not substantially or materially limit these major life activities within the definition of disability under the ADA... http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20110322/lf_nm_life/us_peanut_allergy#mwpphu-container

[Ilsa]

15. The school is now claiming that other students weren't having their faces

wiped with disinfectant. I see no problem with requiring the kids to wash their hands. If the school is peanut free, then mouth-rinsing after lunch shouldn't be an issue.

[tammywammy]

17. That's what I had an issue with in the original OP about this a few days ago

I have no issue with them washing their hands or rinsing their mouths or banning nut products.

[Ilsa]

18. As long as they are only rinsing their mouths with water.

I don't approve of the school mandating that kids put something their selected mouthwash into their mouths.

My son didn't eat meat until he was much older. But I was able to get permission for him to have his PBJ at school, but he couldn't sit anywhere near the child with the allergies, and he knew he couldn't come into contact with that child until he washed up.

My other son is severely disabled, so I empathize with the girl's parents. But my son's disability doesn't require other students to change their routine or inconvenience them.

[hobbit709]

21. Unless they put the kid in an isolation bubble

They'll never be able to take the kid out in public. Won't be able to go the grocery store,any fair or carnival or just pass by someone eating a Snickers bar on the sidewalk.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

23. So where were these kids when I was in school?

I really can't recall a single classmate in my entire K12 education that had any allergy so severe as to require this sort of accommodation. Now I am told one of my neighbors kids goes to school with a boy who is allergic to hair dye and can't be in close proximity to anyone with dyed hair...

[WatsonT]

27. It's largely mass hysteria

there are certainly people who are actually allergic like this girl. But not the majority. There is simply no explanation for the massive surge in peanut allergies lately. Many kids have an insensitivity that is mild and temporary and goes away when you eat peanuts for a while.

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/12/15/are-nut-bans-promoting-hysteria/

[pstokely]

39. Society has become germ phobic because of big pharma

Schools mandate vaccines for everything that kids could die from, but rarely do like chickenpox. They'd mandate a vaccine for the common cold if it existed. Many kids of germ phobic parents later develop allergies. I've heard some doctors suggesting exposing babies to germs

[hifiguy]

That makes intuitive sense

I can't imagine that a healthy immune system could "learn" what to react to and how in the germ-free bubble so many parents today seem to think is essential.

[WatsonT]

50. Well a lot of it is that

it's pretty normal for kids to be slightly intolerant of various foods for short periods of time. They get a little ill or just don't feel good for a while.

It means nothing and 99.9% get over it if they just continue to eat normal foods.

The problem now is that parents see that as proof of a fatal allergy and immediately remove all traces of that food from their house, the schools, etc and completely shelter their children turning a temporary intolerance in to a permanent disability.

So the cure to peanut "allergies" in the vast majority of cases? Ignore them.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/7285152/AAAS-cure-for-peanut-allergy-within-three-years.html

[blondeatlast]

34. I keep wondering the same thing. At age 7, I was dxed with

insulin-dependent diabetes. My wonderful 2nd grade teacher sent home a polite request to the parents that they bring only birthday snacks that I could enjoy or that they refrain from bringing any snacks at all.

Every parent complied without any complaint whatsoever. I never felt left out and no one had to make any special accommodations--and our bday celebrations were healthy and enjoyable.

Problem solved--no feelings hurt anywhere.

[tammywammy]

42. From the comments on a previous story posted on this

The parents were also upset because they weren't allowed to bring in any food for parties, only the girl's mother could bring in food.

I don't think it's that difficult to tell the parents no peanut or nut products, even if it's store bought it will say it on the package. My nephew is allergic to peanuts, though not as severe as this girl, and the family just always makes sure there's no peanut products. Heck, when I bake my most delicious carrot cake for family functions, I even skip the walnuts just to be safe and so that he can enjoy it as well.

[Lyric]

56. Bringing in food is a nightmare anymore.

For example: at my son's school, no homemade foods are allowed at *all* for parties, etc. All treats and snacks for the class must be individually wrapped, commercial products ONLY.

Now...go out to your average grocery store and try to find a cupcake that (1) is individually wrapped, and (2) does NOT have that little disclaimer on the package that says, "This product was manufactured on equipment that also processes peanuts/tree nuts/soy/milk/whatever". Unless you go to some specialty food store and pay a fortune, it ain't gonna happen. Almost EVERYTHING has that little disclaimer now, unless it's specifically manufactured (and advertised!) to serve the "allergic community"...and those tend to sell out fast, thanks to rising demand. It's a huge inconvenience...and well all know how the right-wing responds to "inconvenience".

Parents of kids who have food allergies know this routine VERY well; they go through it every single time they shop. My fellow-English-Major friend Lori had a baby last year who's deathly allergic to damned near everything; she's spent the past year and a half trying her hardest to find foods that are totally allergen-free--both for the baby, and for herself since she still nurses him part-time. She's lost a ton of weight (and she wasn't overweight to begin with) because there's just so LITTLE that she can safely eat while nursing her son. Her entire relationship with food has changed drastically, and not in a positive way. She and I were just talking about this case the other day on Facebook, and she 100% agrees that the kid should probably be pulled out of school if she's THAT allergic. Her exact quote (copy-pasted):

J**** and I were talking about it just last night and I told him that if that were me, I'd just take B** out of school. It's hard enough that we're going through it, you know, and we're his parents. I wouldn't want to force this on anyone else. Your food dynamic just changes entirely. Food is the enemy. Grocery shopping is a trip through a mine field. Cupcakes and candy bars can be lethal weapons. You start to really hate food. I cringe all the time when I think about what B**'s life will be like if this doesn't settle down as he gets older. I mean, I want people to care. I want people to be careful. But do I want people to have to change their lives in the same way that we have? No. I wouldn't wish this on my worst enemy, and that's too much like what those people are expected to do. It's bad enough that we have to see every brownie as something that might be deadly poison. I wouldn't want other people forced to see food that way. And I wouldn't want to risk B**'s life if some pissy, ignorant parent smeared peanut butter on their kid's backpack or something. The millions I'd get from the lawsuit wouldn't give me back my son's life, you know? It's just not worth it.

Frankly, considering the insanity of the right-wing these days, that Mom should just pull her kid out and make the state pay for either a no-nuts private school or a homeschool tutor. It doesn't take much more than a vague inconvenience to set these nutcases off, and the next thing you know, they're committing terrorism-by-peanut-butter. Sure, you'd win the legal argument and that person would probably go to jail, but would that bring your baby back? Nope. I agree with Lori--soooo not worth it.

[tammywammy]

57. Good point

I think the parents were upset because ONLY the parent of the allergic girl could bring food in. I guess I'm lucky, because it's my nephew and it's at family gatherings where food is, and it's easy for me to make something that's nuts free for him to enjoy as well, but it would be more difficult if it all had to be commercially made products. I also know with my nephew, they were hoping he'd grow out of it, and had him retested again a year or so ago, but he's still allergic.

And yes, I do tend to err on the side that if the child is that allergic she should probably be home schooled, since the school is still a dangerous place for her. What I don't understand, is why it's only her class that's doing these precautions (which I either read in another article or in the comments to one). I would think that if any teeny particle of peanut could kill her the whole school would be nut free.

[hifiguy]

45. Same here.

I grew up in the 1960s and 1970s and there was always a kid or two allergic to dogs, cats or penicillin, but I can never remember any kid with food or "exotic" allergies, much less ones so severe. And I went to _large_ elementary and middle schools in suburban Minneapolis.

Verily, 'tis a head scratcher.

[tammywammy]

46. I graduted high school May 1999.

I don't remember anyone with allergies like this at all.

[bluestateguy]

51. Beats me

When I was in elementary school (1980's) nobody had peanut allergies or ADD. You just never heard about it.

Although back then the big thing was scoliosis and asthma.

[WatsonT]

24. With this severe of an allergy she needs to stay home

there will be kids who are smeared with peanut butter from some point in the past even if peanuts are technically banned in the school. That's just the way kids are.

And forcing everyone else to go through such restrictions goes beyond reasonable accommodation.

[pstokely]

41. Home may not be safe enough

What if the parents or siblings come home with peanut dander?

[WatsonT]

47. Well that is the inherent risk associated with having severe allergies

there is a good chance they will kill you.

The threat can be minimized but not eliminated.

[kickysnana]

25. Separates the Christians from the Sodom and Gommorahites.

Really. Those who are so selfish as to throw this girl to her death because they cannot be bothered to see that her environment is safe are evil. Suits our times and our mindsets even here on DU.

Read the book for yourself. It is NOT about homosexuality it is is about how we treat each other.

[Maiden England]

26. what happened to teaching kids about respecting others needs?

It doesn't seem to me to be the end of the world to get one class of kids to wash their hands and rinse their mouths after lunch, to help out one classmate. Teaching them the value of human life, friendship and courteousness to their fellow humans.
The world would be a much better place if we promoted such values.

[Igel]

55. Ignore that it limits others' choices and actions.

In the classroom, how are they going to make sure that all the kids wash their hands and rise out their mouths--and not just rinse but rinse sufficiently?

It's a nightmare. The result of a lapse could be very bad for the girl if the allergy's as bad as the parents say. They'd be able to sue for negligence, and win millions in education money that should pay for instructional materials and teachers' salaries.

The alternative, though, is what a lot of parents have taken to doing, some in small ways and some in large ways. That's jerking the local school board and principal around. It gets expensive. It's one of the reasons that the US spends more on education than most other countries. It's one reason that the amount spent doesn't matter in the least to the average student's education.

[slackmaster]

32. THEY'RE MAKING KIDS WASH THEIR HANDS!!!11!!! OH, THE HORROR!!!111!!!

What's next, making them brush their teeth?

[WatsonT]

49. If the consequence of one kid out of however many failing to do so one time

is the death of another then that's a pretty big gamble.

I think kids should be taught proper hygiene.

But I wouldn't 5 dollars on all of them doing it all the time. So I certainly wouldn't bet another child's life on it.

[Modern_Matthew]

38. Awful situation. But if schools won't even cater to right-brained students...what do you expect? nt

[kiva]

40. On another thread about this, someone

(sorry, can't remember who) made the very sane comment that if their child was that allergic, there would be no way they would rely on other people to safeguard that child, and I agree. When she gets old enough to be able to take charge of her own situation, that's different, but to rely on overworked teachers and aides, and other 6 year olds to always remember to wash and rinse and not to have nut products at school - maybe not.

[pstokely]

43. What if some other parent complains their kid is allergic to the peanut sniffing dog?

Then what?