Children are banned from eating Peanut Butter & Jelly sandwiches at school

reply to post by Benevolent Heretic


All the places you have listed are not similar to a public school. Kids are guarenteed the right to attend public schools that are safe and conducive to learning. This policy of banning peanut products is an attempt to provide this service.

I am not advocating this be implimented in all public forums. But in public schools i think its not a bad idea. Further, what situation is more appealing:

1.Banning peanut products to ensure a safe environment for all students
2. Not allowing kids who have allergies to safely and comfortable attend public school because of a certain food.

To me the choice seems clear.

But if you want to tell little timmy why he cant go to school because sally wants her PB&J you go right ahead. You can tell Sally she can use the constitution as a napkin, because your smearing garbage all over it

Hide the sandwich in a hollow book
when you want to eat it .. go in a corner and make it look like you are studying
while eating your peanut butter and jelly sandwich in peace
it also create an illusion for the teacher that you are studying very very hard

Originally posted by thisguyrighthere

Since when has shipping your kid off to be locked in building not been voluntary?

A) It's not voluntary for the child. Trust me. I spent a lot of mornings, in my childhood, debating this issue with my mother.

B) It is not voluntary to most middle and lower classed parents who cannot afford tutors, private schools, or to home school. If you don't provide your child schooling, then bad things will happen. It is NOT a voluntary thing.

~Heff

The other point i would like to add is that when you look at the products in your pantry many of them or even most in some cases state that they were produced in a factory where nut products were present.

So grain bars, and many healthy alternative foods would also have to be banned. I bet if they went into the kitchen of the school they would find products that were prepared in factories where nuts were present.

reply to post by Hefficide


Virtually everyone homeschools where I am and they're all essentially dirt poor raising 4, 6 even 9 kids on one minimum wage income. Wealth has nothing to do with home schooling as an option.

reply to post by thisguyrighthere


Then your low income neighborhood is vastly different than my low income neighborhood. My world is populated by dual income families scraping by and raising a lot of latch-key kids.

~Heff

Originally posted by Benevolent Heretic
How about the allergic kids eat in a different room? Or on the other side of the cafeteria? Or use the cafeteria first? I'm sure the concern is cross contamination. Perhaps they should look at their cleanliness issues. I could think of a lot of solutions short of BANNING Mr. Peanut...

But with compromise comes with new problems. Isolating a child at a separate table because of his or her allergies can create social ostracism and lead to bullying.

Ugh! Then punish the BULLIES, not the bullied! Every time I see a story like this, I am thankful that I didn't have kids. The school system is whacked!

My kid has severe peanut allergies, and as being a parent it is hard to look at all the packages when you go shopping making sure it doesn't contain peanuts or manufactured on the same equipment that processes peanuts. And to be honest it broke my heart when I found out my kid had to eat lunch all by himself because there were no protocols in effect in his school at the time so their solution was to put him by himself, 2nd grade here. Not high school or even middle school. And yes cross contamination is a big problem, some people can't even have the smell if you will near them, or the oils left on your skin after eating a nice pb&j sandwich. His school now has several kids allergic to peanuts so they are all grouped together in one area, better than alone but still outcasts if you will. It's becoming a bigger problem and more widespread this peanut allergy so this change of rules to the school is a wise move I think.

reply to post by jaynkeel


Thank you for sharing.

Unfortunately some here believe that your child and others like him or her should be forced to remain segregated because of being unique.

reply to post by MDDoxs


Yeah and to be honest it really chaps my ass anymore. In our situation it was pretty pathetic because when my son first started school his nurse at the school didn't really know anything about peanut allergies. And she was at the school working for at least 30 yrs prior. We had to educate her on his eppi pen etc.... And this was only a few years ago.

Originally posted by Hefficide
reply to post by thisguyrighthere

 

Then your low income neighborhood is vastly different than my low income neighborhood. My world is populated by dual income families scraping by and raising a lot of latch-key kids.

~Heff

Simply priorities. If homeschooling were made the priority families where you are could accomplish it.

This is getting off topic but loads of figures and studies have shown that most two income families are actually hurting their financial situations by maintaining the two incomes rather than adjusting to one low income.

If homeschooling were important to any family any family can make it work. Even a family with one income coming from a part-time shopping center baggers wages raising 6 kids. He's been doing it that way for years because homeschooling is the priority for that family.

reply to post by Hefficide

Schools are places where people are forced into small spaces for elongated periods of times. Like airplanes.

Schools do not equal planes. Schools are buildings, they have large rooms. They have ventilation units that supply makeup air from outside the building 10% minimum, federal mandate. They are able to have large rooms because they are not engineered to fly. The children in schools have cubbies and closets. They have desks, water fountains and separate restroom facilities for boy and girls.

None of these things are found on planes.

That is why I am okay with airlines NOT serving peanuts on a flight across the country lasting a number of hours. Nobody is forced to buy a plane ticket.

Public schools are a different animal.

Originally posted by Hefficide
And, oh, BTW, airlines voluntarily do not use peanut products. Why? Because they don't want to be sued over an avoidable medical situation. Why should a public school have less of a right to protect itself and it's "customers" than a corporation?

It's common sense. And there's no common sense in absolutist argument.

~Heff

Ahh yes, but people are allowed to bring and eat peanut products on the plane, no? I can see the school not serving peanut products, but to tell a child's parents that they are not allowed to bring a pb&j from home is totally different.

this whole Allergy issue blows me away.

I'm in my mid-40's. I cannot, for the life of me, remember 1 single kid in school who was either a) allergic to nuts, b) had asthma or c) was austistic/ADHD

What the hell did we do to our society these last 30 years that makes this happen?

Originally posted by TXRabbit
this whole Allergy issue blows me away.

I'm in my mid-40's. I cannot, for the life of me, remember 1 single kid in school who was either a) allergic to nuts, b) had asthma or c) was austistic/ADHD

What the hell did we do to our society these last 30 years that makes this happen?

Exactly !
This IS the important question we have to ask

at the same time you have to ask why in all the schools
there is some huge vacination program for the kids each yrs

Originally posted by CoherentlyConfused
Can allergies kick in by merely smelling peanut butter?

YES! But to penalize a whole student body is a bit insane,,,,,,If my child was intolerant of a particular ingredient, I would not send him/her out in the public.

reply to post by kaylaluv


I'd honestly have to research that ( people bringing peanuts onto planes ). I am not sure about the answer. Unfortunately I had a death in my family yesterday and am being pulled in several different directions today involving wakes, viewings, and funeral arrangements... So I may not get to doing this research for a day or three. My apologies. But I will return with an answer at some point.

~Heff

reply to post by TXRabbit


My thought is that with highly processed foods, these things are becoming more common. I personally have a very severe shellfish allergy and was stymied to learn ( the hard way ) about just how many products upset my allergies and can cause me anaphalxis.

~Heff

reply to post by TXRabbit


Just because you didnt see them, does not mean they were not there....

I think 40 years ago these kids were treated as undesirables and swept under the carpet as it were and had a rough childhood.

Today, American and the majority of the western world does not believe in doing that.

reply to post by TXRabbit


Me either. It really makes you wonder what's going on. It seems like every kid I meet nowadays has some kind of problem with something or other.

Well, with one exception but she was allergic to everything, so she was way outside the norm. This girl was allergic to many different foods, pollen, mold, dust mites, animals--she had to have special bedding and detergents in her home, anti-allergenic everything.

I felt bad for her but guess what--she went to a public school and got along just fine. Poor thing had a tissue in her hand all the time, though and while I was allowed to visit her home, she wasn't allowed to visit mine and no sleepovers.

Originally posted by Hefficide
reply to post by kaylaluv

 

I'd honestly have to research that ( people bringing peanuts onto planes ). I am not sure about the answer. Unfortunately I had a death in my family yesterday and am being pulled in several different directions today involving wakes, viewings, and funeral arrangements... So I may not get to doing this research for a day or three. My apologies. But I will return with an answer at some point.

~Heff

Well, I was in the airport a couple of months ago, and stopped in one of the little stores there - bought me a bag of mixed nuts to take on the plane with me. Flew a major airline - Continental. I took that bag out in the middle of the flight and ate those nuts. No one told me I couldn't.

I am sorry about your loss.