[Sonny M]

My feeling on this is that you teach the child to cope with living in a risky world, and make some reasonable accommodations like a peanut-free zone (which you really can't trust). At some point the kid is going to have to learn to cope with the real world where lethal poison is sold in vending machines all over. Why not now?

Personally, I'd just ban in grade school, by the time these kids get to High School they do know how to use a needle and stick themselves if they are going to die.

I'm not into the whole slippery slope thing where banning peanuts in a school means a nazi state of the union tomorrow.

A school banning one veggie isn't a sign of totalitarianism.

Its a mild safety precaution.

By the time they are older, they have more sense to know that peanuts can kill them, but when they are in like the 2nd grade (my friends sons age), they still have some problems with the concept.

[DBrow]

The needle thing is not an issue.

You take the epi-pen out, remove the safety, and jam the black end on your thigh.

Count to ten, and that's it! Four-year-olds can do it.

You don't automatically die from every reaction. Most often you just get sick, possibly quite sick, maybe only a little.

I'm not against peanut bans because of slippery slopes or totalitarianism creeping into our lives, it's just that coping with peanut allergy is a life skill that is better learned early than late.

Being coddled too much can lead to expectations of being coddled and given special treatment later, in adult life.

If you are one of the 1-2 million Americans with peanut allergy, it's better to deal with it yourself than force the other 286,000,000 folks to deal with it for you.