Why Did a Tennessee Grade School Ban Pork?

Fox News & Commentary ^ | August 15, 2013 | Todd Starnes

[informavoracious]

This “cultural sensitivity” crap is what they teach teachers in college instead of anything useful. The opening paragraph of the letter is full of grammatical errors! Any private or homeschooled third grader could have written better. Or a public school third grader 30 years ago. I’d have taken my red pen, marked the paper with an “F,” and sent it back. The poor English bugs me as much as the demand for special snacks. And it was not just one teacher, it was sent on behalf of the entire third grade class (unless there is only one third grade teacher.)

[informavoracious]

Monsanto, and the NSA invasion of privacy, are not loony-left-only issues. You may not agree one or the other is a problem, but these two issues are bi-partisan.

[Boogieman]

Who said anything about the NSA?

But Monsanto, on the other hand, is pretty firmly in loony left territory. It’s a “Occupy” issue, through and through.

[TangoLimaSierra]

email address of Principal:

karenc@wcs.edu. She needs to be overwhelmed. Idiot!!!

All right, all right, I'll overwhelm her. No need to call me names.

[Grams A]

No need to call me names.”

Guess my sentence structure/word placement is kind of like the difference between:

Let’s eat Grandma.
and
Let’s eat, Grandma.

No offense meant - just wasn’t quite through I guess. LOL

[Charles H. (The_r0nin)]

I had a co-worker who was deathly allergic to peanuts. I sat two offices down from him, and was eating a PB&J for lunch. He stopped by my office on his way out the door, and was obviously in quite a bit of respiratory distress. He quickly explained the situation, and I never brought PB&J into that workplace again. No problem.

No offense intended, but you got snowed! What you described has no medical basis whatsoever.

We had a ten year-old die in my county's school district. He ate a peanut-butter cookie he was given by another student and his throat swelled shut. The kid knew he was allergic to peanuts, but ate the cookie anyway. He had no epi-pen, and the EMS didn't manage to get there in time. Very sad situation. In response, the district brought in a specialist (M.D. with specialization in allergic reactions) and added epi-pens to all of the clinics.

The reason I tell you this is I heard this doctor (who knew what she was talking about) assert conclusively that there are NO food allergies that are dangerous based on proximity or non-contact exposure. PERIOD. Even the most allergic kid must EAT the food (though they can develop a skin rash from handling the food) in order to be at risk. She stated this as a medical fact (and the discussion was centered around peanut allergies, as this is what the kid had died from).

So your co-worker was a drama-queen, because the simple presence of peanuts (especially airborne) could not have possibly done anything to him, unless he ate some of it. He was just trolling for attention...

[WVKayaker]

I've really decided that PORK is my favorite meat...

It's hard to get a good beef steak here in the Philippines (migrated here in March), but I can get it. Pork and chicken are the preferred meats, mainly due to costs and availability. Ground beef is found, but frequently is sold out.

BUT, yesterday, I went to the local supermarket and bought some lean ground pork, and made some country sausage. Added salt and black pepper, red pepper flakes, garlic powder, sage, basil, and mixed it all up. Made some patties, fired up the stove and heated the frying pan. Sizzle began shortly thereafter.

As it was cooking, my housekeeper (a 17 year old Filipina), started sniffing and came into the kitchen. After it was cooked, I gave her a patty and she gave me a big grin and big "thumbs up". I let her cook me some eggs, and toasted some Gardenia brand raisin bread.

I get dark roastedBarako coffee from a guy on another island, and brew and drink a pot every morning. Now, I can enjoy my southern breakfast, even better!

Ground pork = 200Ph Pesos pe kilo (2.2 lbs)

FRESH eggs = 70 PhP per dozen, large

Gardenia brand raisin bread = 63 PhP small loaf, sliced

Barako coffee = 180 PhP kilo

comforting breakfast = priceless!

(43.74 PhP= $1US today!)

[Oztrich Boy]

How much graft did those Big Snack Firms pay the school for exclusivity? Inquiring minds want to know.

[TangoLimaSierra]

No offense meant - just wasn’t quite through I guess. LOL

I knew what you were saying. I was just expanding as a joke. :)

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[Grams A]

Sometimes my mind gets ahead of my fingers - or something like that. I am blond (sort of), female, a senior citizen and Polish so...

[GailA]

Heck I lived on bologna through K -12 every day. Once in a while Peanut butter. Mom would stick butter on it, YUCK! Bologna, cheese and toms with mustard still one of my favorites and I’m 65, Don’t give a hoot what the cholesterol mad doc thinks I’ll eat it if I want to. Oscar Mayer or Bryan’s.

[wbill]

I don't doubt your story, but if true, this guy needs to go into acting instead of computers. His face was getting red and puffy, and he was very obviously having trouble breathing. Classic symptoms of anaphylaxis (I'm no doc, but I know a little about it, as well).

He had a number of other health problems - alopecia (100% hair loss) among them. They might have been contributing factors, I dunno.

Pleasant fellow, but he had a long row to hoe. I'd not want to handle some of his issues.

[bgill]

No hysteria, just trying to figure out what has changed in peanuts in the last handful of years that is causing such reactions. BTW, I wasn’t the only one who had that suspicion. What’s your take, other than over protective mamas, on why the sudden onset of peanut allergies?

[Boogieman]

Well, I think it’s a poor premise to start out with “what has changed in peanuts?” If that is your starting point, you are already excluding a number of scenarios without even examining them. For example, the possibility that the allergies are being faked, or misdiagnosed, or the scenario someone else proposed on the thread that environmental exposure to peanuts in non-food products has increased.

Then, I think we should also take into account that, even if peanut allergies seem to be more common, they are still only affecting a tiny percentage of the population. So it is much more likely that there is something different about those people than that this is due to something different about the peanuts. If the peanuts themselves were “toxic”, then it would affect everyone who eats them, and not just a few people.

[bgill]

Ok, if you’re saying something in people has changed in the last ten years, then what is it?

I’m not buying the hand lotion example. As you said, “If the peanuts themselves were “toxic”, then it would affect everyone who eats them, and not just a few people.” If that works with peanuts, it also works with other products.

[Boogieman]

“Ok, if you’re saying something in people has changed in the last ten years, then what is it?”

No, I’m not saying that at all. I’m saying that any premise that starts off assuming that you know what is different, whether it is the peanuts, the people, etc, is a bad premise to arrive at the facts. You’re already biasing your investigation from the get go. You should instead look at all the possible explanations, without bias, to see what is most likely.

“As you said, “If the peanuts themselves were “toxic”, then it would affect everyone who eats them, and not just a few people.” If that works with peanuts, it also works with other products.”

There is a big difference between a substance being an allergen and a substance being toxic. A toxic substance would affect everyone to some degree, with some variations due to individual tolerance. An allergen only affects those who are susceptible to that particular allergen, but anyone can become susceptible to an allergen with enough exposure. So the lotion theory, at least on its face, is a perfectly sensible theory, while the “GM makes food toxic” theory is easily demonstrated to be false.

[Boogieman]

“The best example is wheat - something that has been a staple of diets for centuries now has absolutely nothing in common with wheat of just 25 years ago and has actually gone from being a beneficial food to being basically toxic.”

What is the level of toxicity of wheat in PPM? How many people have died due to wheat poisoning?

[PapaBear3625]

As someone said in an earlier post, if we had any real journalists left, someone would be looking into this. What difference can it make what brand of pencil or ruler or notebook or crayon the students use?

If everyone brings in the same brand, then they can redistribute the supplies without some kid complaining that he got the off-brand while the other kid got the name brand.

[goldi]

Well, then the parents have got to get together and say NO!

A kid couldn’t use 120 Ticonderoga Number 2 pencils during his whole school career.

Great, parents pay school taxes (not all of them, mind you) and then they get to supply pencils to a bunch of illegals. They should be on the phones en masse.