School 'Peanut Gallery' Raises Eyebrows [Peanut Butter Sammich eaters segregated]

Fox News Online ^ | 1/4/05 | Jeff Goldblatt

[TheBigB]

YORKTOWN, Ind. — Savannah Dowling is a typical 8-year-old girl; much of her protein comes from peanut butter sandwiches.

However, if she wants to bring one to Central Indiana's Pleasant View Elementary School, she has to eat it at a special table in the cafeteria to accommodate one first grader with a severe allergy. Soon she'll have to take her lunch to an area the school is calling the "peanut gallery" so the one child with the peanut allergy isn't affected.

"I don't think everybody should have to suffer because of one kid," said Mike Raper, a critic of the idea and fiancé of Savannah's mother. "I think it's a terrible precedent. Basically, because there's nowhere to draw the line. You've got people allergic to milk, wheat. My own son's diabetic. There's just no where to draw that line."

School Superintendent Mary Ann Irwin called it "one of the most challenging" accommodations the school has made for its students.

[Docbarleypop]

What a bs knee jerk reaction, latex based paint should not cause problems with allergies due to its chemical make up, and for the most part the allergy has to be extremely severe before being in the vacinity causes a reaction, usually only OR nurses get this bad due to their constant exposure to cheeply made latex gloves. i am allergic to alot of perfumes and a few other things, i am forever on benedryl and now started to carry an epi, but it has never occured to me to ask the people i come into contact with not to wear perfume. except for my coworker, hers just stank!

[Gone GF]

"Sorry but being allergic to some food is not a badge of honor or some kind of claim to fame. It's a sign of weakness and physical ailments."

You realize that you just called a significant portion of the people at FR weak? Pretty warped view of things.

[Grendel9]

"Lunches from home or from school are NOT to contain
Peanut Butter." This has been the school rule for
5 years at our local schools in Northern Illinois.

Remove the child with the allergy to the stuff? Why
that would be considered abuse! Once again, the many
must accomodate the few.

I will admit the child with the allergy is at great
risk. I've seen the severity of the allergy in hospital.
It takes days to recoup from the encounter. We had one
kiddo who actually died from it. The pb sandwich cannot
be within yards of the poor kid. If the class eats in
the classroom, the confinement is too restricting and
the fumes of the ground nuts is sufficient to cause an immediate swelling of the throat to the point of inability to breath. It is terriying for the kiddo as well as the
teacher.
Lawyers have determined the SCHOOL is responsible for the
healthy environment of ALL the students. Try building a
cheapy 2-story school house without an elevator!

[Methos8]

Well, I can offer a little perspective on this as I am highly allergic to peanuts and peanut butter.

I ate a Reeses Pieces candy when I was eighteen months and almost died as a result of the reaction to it. I was tested and found to be allergic to peanuts and obviously didn't eat it anymore at home - at least not on purpose.

Growing up until I was six or seven, I had to go to the hospital a few times because I would accidently eat something with peanuts. Once or twice probably because I was a kid and didn't know any better. I know I ate some at school once when another kid brought cookies to kidnergarten and I asked the kid and teacher if there were any nuts. Both said no and they were wrong and I got sick (that was the end of eating snacks brought by other kids).

As a child, if I ate enough of it, it probably could have killed me. And I would feel a little swelling of the throat if someone was eating it right next to me and breathing on me. I would just move to another spot in the cafeteria and deal with it. Which is what this kid (and all others with similar problems) should do.

I know that other kids probably have much more severe allergies than I did but lets get real. Setting up a peanut gallery or 'peanut free zone' is stupid. You know a troublemaker would go breathe on or do something worse to the kids trying to avoid PB (setting up the school for a major lawsuit, I would think). The best way to handle it is to pack your kid's lunch and tell them if anyone around is eating it, to move away from them. It is not that hard for a kid over the age of five to comprehend this.

I don't think my parents or any others should be ashamed or are awful parents for sending me to public school. A little common sense is needed here by all sides - the kids (eat the lunch that is packed and move away from PB-eating kids), the parents (by telling their kids to do as mentioned) and the school (not really sure what their responsibility is here). The cries to home school the kid or other ideas are a little out of line. As a parent, perhaps calling a few of the kid's friends and seeing if they can stop eating PB at school to give the child someone to sit with or something. Involving the school is just going to cause more problems.

Fortunately for me - I have outgrown my allergy, at least to the point where I don't have to be hospitalized or anything drastic if I eat a little bit of the stuff. I will just get a horrific stomach ache and be in some pain for a few hours. Not fun but I'll take it over not being able to breathe.

[eccentric]

You're right, of course. I appologize for my hateful over-reaction to a stupid situation.

Remember when kids like Ryan White just wanted to be allowed into school at all? It was a great advance for David (no last name)the bubble boy to have communication to a classroom. And now.... well, this extreme is wrong, too.

[1Old Pro]

Now, imagine this is YOUR child.

I have a nephew who is severely allergic to peanuts. I still wouldn't force the idiocy of this public school system on the entire population of the school because of a handful of kids. Even at young ages these kids avoid any foods not provided by their mom or certified as no-nuts. My kid would be taught and learn this. That's the problem with public schools, they can't teach.

[Sam's Army]

"You realize that you just called a significant portion of the people at FR weak? Pretty warped view of things."

What portion, exactly? I want hard data backed up with sources. And don't tell me about some 3rd hand story of a neighbor's kid lurking on FR who lost their eyesight cuz they spotted a Planter's peanuts ad on TV one day.

[End Times Sentinel]

I wouldn't go so far as to say that I'm allergic to Peanuts, but I'm definitely sick of them.  I mean, for God sakes, how many specials did Schultz crank out?  Happy Arbor Day Charlie Brown?  That same dreary water color background, the ubiquitous Vince Guraldi sound track, Franklin scheming a golden parachute deal from Fannie Mae, Sergeant Schultz on the horns of dilemma over whether or not to turn Clink into the authorities.  I'd like my life to be a Peanuts free zone too.

Owl_Eagle

"You know, I'm going to start thanking
the woman who cleans the restroom in
the building I work in.  I'm going to start
thinking of her as a human being"

-Hillary Clinton

(Yes, she really said that

Peggy Noonan

The Case Against Hillary Clinton, pg 55)

[Sam's Army]

I know, I know---just don't get started on the Irish again. You already apologized once on that incident. I will call down the admin moderator on you so fast you'll think that rice grows in BBQ ovens at Luzinski's restaurant.

[eccentric]

lol perfect for a lunchbox!

[HenryLeeII]

I will call down the admin moderator on you so fast you'll think that rice grows in BBQ ovens at Luzinski's restaurant.

You mean Greg Luzinski's kosher restaurant?

[HenryLeeII]

I wouldn't go so far as to say that I'm allergic to Peanuts, but I'm definitely sick of them.

An all-too-common complaint of the Woodstock generation!

[Sam's Army]

Of course!!!

[stan the beaver]

"I am alergic to garlic..."
How long are your teeth?

[New Perspective]

Excellent post. Kids can be very enlightening.My friend is a Dr and has been a paraplegic since a car accident at age 22. My nephew was 8 and wanted to show this little girl my friend Steve, in the wheel chair when he stopped in. My nephew proceeds to tell the girl, as if Steve was not even there, that you could throw as much snow on his legs as you want, and he would never get cold. And that a whole house could fall on his legs and he wouldn't feel it. The best one was when my nephew told Steve that he was lucky because he got to still all the time.

Thank God I met Steve a few years ago because he has taught my family and I valuable knowledge about being handicap. I think God was priming us for our son. Steve has an excellent sense of humor and nothing stops him. He needs a little help now and then, like getting on his jetski, or being loaded into our yearly Aircombat planes that we fly. He is a real inspiration. For Christmas this year, I gave him a coupon for free River Dance lessons. He was laughing so hard he almost fell out of his chair.

[pointsal]

Why does one kid get to set the living standard for the whole school? Our social order is now dictated by the demands of ultra-demanding fabricated minorities! Stupid and dumb.

[myrabach]

I am a grown woman and have avoided honey all my life due to SEVERE allergies. I cannot even smell the stuff without my throat closing up and my mouth itching.

I was working at a nursing home and our department head meetings were lunch meetings, the lunch being provided by the dietary department. Unknown to me, the cook used honey in the sauce, not much so there was no aroma because the sauce was also very spicy.

Needless to say I wound up in the hospital in anaphylactic shock and on a respirator. Gratefully no one expected me to eat by myself there on in. Rather they respected me and my need to be a part of the department meetings and didn't serve any dishes that required the use of honey. I don't think that's socialism or liberalism, rather I think it's respect for the individual. I'm very happy the people I worked with had a lot more humanity than most of you on this thread.

The idea that most of you would isolate and ostrasize a child based on a condition that is no fault of his seems rather cruel to me. It seems that the school has looked to the need of the individual in this case and tried to make a solution that would not make the child some sort of social outcast. The use of "peanut gallery" seems to be an attempt to make the area comfortable for the kids who should be eating there. They are not even making the kids stop bring peanut items to school, but rather trying to give all the children a pleasant and respectful atmosphere. Why this solution is considered idiocy truly is beyond me.

What seems idiocy to me is having to isolate a child because you wouldn't want to have anyone inconvenienced by acknowledging another's needs. Doesn't citizenship ask us to be mindful of the needs of others in our society?

[Gone GF]

"What portion, exactly? I want hard data backed up with sources. And don't tell me about some 3rd hand story of a neighbor's kid lurking on FR who lost their eyesight cuz they spotted a Planter's peanuts ad on TV one day."

Read more carefully.

He said that ALL allergies -- not just a peanut allergy -- are a sign of weakness. Now, what percentage of people here have either a food, dust, cat, dog, grass, tree, pollen, medication, bee or other allergy? I can't say with precision but do you doubt it's a significant number? According to dennisw, everybody with one of these problems is weak.

I guess I have a different persepctive on this. I don't have a peanut allergy but I do have celiac sprue, an autoimmune disease that keeps me from eating wheat, rye or barley. Celiac almost killed me before it was diagnosed.

You think staying free of peanut butter is bad? If I were in elementary school, I'd have to have a place to eat and a classroom free of all bread crumbs, crackers, play dough (has wheat), finger paints (ditto), pizza, cookies, cake, pasta and on and on. Children who have celiac and eat small amounts of any of these will not go into convulsions and die, but even a small exposure -- an exposure like a few crumbs getting in their food or on their hands -- can make some sick enough to miss school for days. I'm an adult so I know to wash my hands, avoid crumbs and not eat all those yummy things that can make me sick. Tougher for young children.

Until you've walked in those shoes...

[1Old Pro]

Simple solution, let people know of your allergy and especially people that fix group meals.

As far as the smell bothering you, thankfully most people don't eat honey in the lunchroom. But if the smell of peanuts makes you ill, you might want to eat at your desk and not in a lunchroom where people might normally consume nuts.

Or , you could make everyone else eat at their desks while you ate in the lunchroom....kinda what they are doing at this school.

[RexFamilia]

Stan,

I said I'm italian, not from Transylvania. Ciao

Jay