Posted on 09/25/2007 7:15:42 AM PDT by Cagey
ST. JOHNS COUNTY, Fla. -- Some young St. Johns County students are no longer allowed to bring a popular lunchtime food to school. Peanut butter has been banned.
A kindergarten student at Ocean Palms Elementary in Ponte Vedra has a peanut allergy that has forced the student's classroom to become a peanut-free zone, WJXT-TV reported.
Not all parents are happy with the changes in other students' diets and the inconvenience caused by the peanut ban.
Tracey Torres's son is 5 years old. She said one of his favorite lunchtime sandwiches is peanut butter and jelly, which is also one of Torres's favorites because it's quick, easy and nutritious.
"That's just a typical thing that a kid brings to school and it's something my son likes. It's quick and easy for me in the morning. To not be able to bring that and have to do something else is a burden on me in the morning," Torres said.
She said the peanut-free classroom has been a burden on her in the morning since his kindergarten class at Ocean Palms went peanut free because another student is allergic to peanuts.
When the peanut allergy issue first came up, school officials tried to separate kids with nuts from kids without by sitting them at a different table in school but the close scrutiny was too much work.
"Too much work … and the students weren't always able to eat lunch," said Ocean Palms Elementary Michael Parrish.
Under the new peanut ban, students area able to eat lunch but just not peanuts.
Torres said she thinks it's unfair for kids to suffer because of one student's allergy.
"The burden should be placed back on the parent of that child, and their only responsibility should be to create an awareness with the other parents and children," Torres said.
However, Parrish said awareness isn't enough when dealing with a life-threatening allergy.
The principal said the school is working on a more permanent solution. He said they would probably end up with a peanut-free table in the cafeteria and another table that allows peanuts.
There’s MA a kid who may or may not go to his city’s Middle School next year and he has a Latex Allergy. They are gutting the school all all Latex and Plastic”
Good luck with eliminating plastic from a modern school. Aren’t all the chairs, bleachers, etc, made of plastic? No one can use wood anymore. Too expensive, and the environazis will yell. Toilet seats, the TP holders, the paper towel holders. All rulers, barrels on mechanical pencils, protractors. How is this kid going to get thru Math classes which are mandatory without all these tools? Lots of bookcovers are plastic, also.
Like I said- Good Luck.....
Smart move. I love lobster & wouldn't mind if my husband was allergic. If he was I could have it all.
Our school doesn't ban it, just tags the child who brings PB&J to school. Then they must sit at the PB&J table.
And his parents should be relieved of the burden of paying school taxes, right?”
I have paid school taxes on as many as 3 properties at once ( paying for my dad when he was retired) which as of now add up to 69 years of paying property taxes which include school taxes.
I had no children. I had no impact on the use of the schools.
Where do I apply for my refund? Living on a very fixed income today, that refund would be a Godsend.
What about the child that brings the cookie that has peanut oil in it.
Segregating the kids won’t help if little Susie can die just by smelling a peanut. They can turn up anywhere.
Well, your school seems smarter than some. I have encountered some parents that would not be satisfied with that. I met one women who had a child allergic to wood smoke. She wanted the entire county to ban wood fire places.
Ponte Vedra in Jacksonville is a pretty rich community. I am surprised they even eat peanut butter. /sarc.
Home school.
I asked that very question to the school nurse. She didn’t seem too concerned. They can’t check every single thing she said. But still the PB&J sandwiches were taken out of the classroom. If the mother of that child had her way none of the children would have been allowed to bring in snacks or lunch.
Mister Peanut of Planters, Wilkes-Barre, is somewhat confused that these problems are coming to light after 80 years.
I don’t know why people are like that. My neighbor uses her indoor fireplace and I smell it. When I use my outside fireplace for the cool nights by the pool she calls the police. I actually have a letter that says I can use my outside fireplace to show to the police. Seems its alright for her in her mind but its not alright for me. Go figure...
Out of curiosity, has anyone every heard of a black kid or latino kid with a peanut allergy? I haven’t.
I knew a 40 year-old man 20 years ago who had a peanut allergy.
Sound to me the school would find it cheaper to face a lawsuit than accommodate this one kid and his/her neurotic parent.
Then how the hell do you walk through life? You can't go to a mall because every mall has a Chinese restaurant cooking Kung Pow Chicken. You can't go to a Fair or a amusement park. Or a grocery store for that matter.
Nor do people who complain that their children must eat at a separate table because they brought peanut butter.
Put the kid with the allergy outside. Not the other 99.9%. No sympathy from me, either.
Children are trusting and will do anything adults tell them, which is why we can't let Leftist guide their agendas.
The reason peanuts have to be banned has nothing to do with students trading sandwiches. It is because the allergy can be so severe that if one child gets peanut butter on the lunch table and wipes it up with a napkin, there is oil left on the table that could be fatal for a child with a severe peanut allergy. Likewise, if a child has peanut oil on their hands, and touches someone who has a peanut allergy it can be absorbed through the skin and cause a reaction. This happened to boy in elementary school with me. He died.
All of the concern is not about children that are over pampered or not smart, it is about an allergy that is so severe that many people die from it each year. Children with peanut allergies are normal kids, that can and should attend school with other children. I can’t believe the number of posters who would rather tell the allergic child they aren’t fit to attend school, than tell their child that they will have to eat another kind of sandwich for lunch. It is very disappointing.
If anything goes wrong in your life, I certainly hope that your family and friends are more empathetic than you are.
It was very hard to figure out that xanthan gum was the culprit. I had to write down everything he had eaten before an allergic reaction, including checking ingredient labels. What do Taco Bell taco sauce and Hershey's Chocolate syrup have in common? Xanthan gun. When I finally figured it out, the allergist got some and tested him for it, which confirmed that xanthan was responsible.
At home, it is pretty easy to avoid. We don't buy processed foods, but make our own instead. Eating out is a problem, though.
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