School 'Peanut Gallery' Raises Eyebrows

Fox News ^ | 01-04-05 | WestVirginiaRebel

[WestVirginiaRebel]

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 to accomodate 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.

[rwfromkansas]

er...."dye," not "die."

[Former Proud Canadian]

Then they need to stay away from peanuts

Yes, that would be key.

[R. Scott]

I hope not, but the way it’s going with “The Children”, I may be relegated to a special peanut butter gazebo for lunch.

[rwfromkansas]

Why should the student with the allergy feel like a leper?

Don't they deserve to be able to sit with the other students and have a normal life?

I understand where you are coming from...but I don't think they should be marginalized and forced to eat by themselves.

[rwfromkansas]

"least restrictive environment"
"inclusion"
"Mainstreaming"

These are the buzzwords due to trends and legislation today.

Frankly, singling a student out as a leper when that is NOT his least restrictive environment would be illegal.

[jim_trent]

Actually, this predates the Howdy Doody show. I remember reading that the "Peanut Gallery" was the segregated part of a theater (prior to movie-theaters) for Blacks.

[Pablo64]

I, for one, do not doubt the severity of peanut allergies. I am severly allergig to walnuts and pecans. I can eat every other kind of nut (love almonds, cashews, hazelnuts, brazil nuts, etc.) but don't let me near walnuts or pecans. I really don't care about not being able to eat walnuts because I think they taste like crap (or what I would imagine crap tastes like!), but pecans taste good for about the first 30 seconds to a minute, then the fun begins.

What I am extremely curious about is why it seems we are having an escalation of this allergic reaction to peanuts in our society today. I'm 40 years old (okay, almost 41) and I can not remember one single case of anyone being allergic to peanuts when I was a kid (and we were very aware of food allergies in our house). Everybody ate PBJ sandwiches, or brought peanut brittle to class at the holiday's and nothing was said. I wonder what has changed in our environment, or such, that has brought on this rash (no pun intended) of food allergies? I have a pet theory that it has something to do with all the pre-packaged and processed foods we eat today (and all the preservative agents, etc. in them), but I can't prove it. Just a gut feeling I have, but I try my best to cook from "scratch" as much as I possibly can and try to limit pre-packaged and processed foods as much as I can.

[R. Scott]

I remember reading that the "Peanut Gallery" was the segregated part of a theater (prior to movie-theaters) for Blacks.

This is the first I’ve heard that, but I do remember the Howdy Doody Show. It is possible that the segregated section could have been named from the show as I doubt the show’s audience would have been named after the theater section.
I do remember “no comments from the peanut gallery” becoming a popular phrase – and that did come from the show, indicating the speaker was operating an that intellectual level.

[Freedom4US]

"Peanut allergies are very common."

I have great sympathy for your child's affliction, but I rather doubt "very common" is an appropriate description.