Posted on 08/06/2002 8:53:03 PM PDT by mhking
It's no joke! Cobb school bans peanuts
By MARY MACDONALD
Atlanta Journal-Constitution Staff Writer
The classic childhood lunch, a PB&J on white bread, will be confiscated on sight this year at one of Cobb County's elementary schools.
So will peanut butter crackers and cookies, peanut butter cups and anything else containing Georgia's top-selling homegrown snack.
The ban on all things goober is no joke. Several children entering Smyrna's Nickajack Elementary School this year have allergies so severe they are life-threatening, said new Principal Constance Carter. Some people are so allergic that even breathing peanut dust can trigger a reaction.
Carter banned peanut products from the campus, including bake sales and bag lunches carried in by children.
The action is unusual but not unheard of. King Springs Elementary School, also in Smyrna, banned peanut products for similar reasons last year. Teachers and a few schools nationwide have done the same thing for children with severe allergies.
Petra White, a Nickajack mom of two girls, thinks most parents will sympathize.
"It's not like they have to have a peanut butter sandwich three times a week," she said. "I don't have a problem keeping peanuts out of their lunches."
The habit may be hard for other parents to break. Peanut butter is a staple for fussy children and a standby in the lunchroom.
Cafeteria workers rely on it for field trip bags because it's portable protein.
"Peanut butter really is a standard," Carter said.
The person with the problem is a child at school. You propose that the child himself ought to be in charge of policing the actions of all his classmates? "Johnny, I can't play with you unless I see you wash your hands after eating your PB&J"? "Mary, if you ate peanut butter at lunch you cannot pass me papers!"
Do you think we ought not provide any special assistance for blind or deaf people? Crosswalks ought not have those little chirping birdie things so that blind people know when to cross the street?
All those imperfect people out to go hide in their houses and stop causing us so much trouble.
That's not a bad idea. I recall a sixth grade asthmatic classmate of mine requesting that we not smoke in his presence. We knew him, so we didn't smoke around him. Problem solved.
We sure didn't have to get the state involved in banning smoking in school!
Do you think we ought not provide any special assistance for blind or deaf people? Crosswalks ought not have those little chirping birdie things so that blind people know when to cross the street?
I don't think it should be the law of the land that society must provide accommodation for every problem experienced by those who think others are responsible with providing them everything they want.
And I've never heard of chirping things. I would think that if crosswalk light manufacturers wanted to offer a chirper as an option, and if the owner had an intersection that a lot of blind people used, that owner may want to buy that option.
I disagree. Are we, as a society obligated to provide reasonable accomodation for those who are "handicapped"? I think we are as a moral issue. But this is no longer a choice, it's been legislated and overlegislated in many different areas. Is it reasonable to ban peanut butter? Maybe not. Perhaps separate tables and a little extra vigilance would be enough.
Problem solved because you were a reasonable kid.
People act like jerks or are careless so we respond with rules and laws and then half of us rebell because we don't like to be pushed around. I don't know what the answer is. We certainly aren't becoming a "nicer" society because of it all.
The owner being the state or county, and bingo you've got chirpy things at the crosswalks. I'd like society much better if it were the 10 of us in town getting together to put in a wheelchair ramp at the general store so that old widow Jones can go shopping. Or a group of local parents deciding not to send peanut butter to school because Susie's little one is allergic and that's personal to us. But we're not that way anymore.
You seem conflicted.
Is eating peanut products anywhere still legal? is it a choice or isn't it?
When were peanut products banned by legislation?
Are not your last two statements expressions of choice?
You will note that the professional compassionate with a personal agenda did not include accomodation as an option at the beginning of this thread.
Are life threatening allergies a disability as per the ADA? I don't know. If they are, or can be argued to be, then I'd say the school probably has no choice but to do "something". Whether a ban would be deemed more reasonable than separate tables given the risk is something I don't know. Ask a Judge.
Thank you for the distillation of a long thread into the few meaningful key words.
And it was not even necessary to drag the word "children" into it!
Allergies in Children What to Do
This school's logic then dictates that we eliminate all of the above foods from schools. Checkpoints with specially trained dogs and detectors can then be placed at all points of entry to ensure a "Allergen Free Zone".
They are.
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