Posted on 09/27/2007 2:22:06 PM PDT by UKrepublican
Boy with nut allergy banned from school because he is a 'health and safety risk'
Like anyone with a nut allergy, George Hall-Lambert had always assumed it was the food that caused the problem not him.
His new school didn't agree. Concerned that none of the staff was trained to cope if the 11-year-old had an allergic reaction, the headmaster banned him on health and safety grounds.
George, who was diagnosed with a nut allergy at 18 months, carries an emergency adrenaline injection, known as an EpiPen, and wears a medical tag to alert carers to his condition.
When he began at Howden School in East Yorkshire, his mother informed the comprehensive about the allergy.
A file with medical notes was forwarded from his primary.
If the boy went into severe anaphylactic shock it could render him unconscious and he would need assistance using the EpiPen.
He had been at school for only four days when the head summoned his mother for a meeting.
He told her George must go home as no policies were in place to deal with his condition.
Judith Hall-Lambert, who has three other children, said: "Howden School is saying nobody could take charge of his EpiPen because staff don't know how to use it.
"They won't let him back in school until everything has been sorted out and he is classed as safe.
"If he went back now they say he would be a health and safety risk."
George, who was near the top of his class in his SATs tests, is receiving 15 hours a week tuition at home.
But Mrs Hall-Lambert, 37, of Eastrington, near Goole, added: "George is being discriminated against because he has a nut allergy.
"He is a bright kid and this could set back his education."
She dismissed an offer for him to attend the inclusion unit at the school, as it is predominantly for children with behavioural problems.
"George is well-behaved and there is no reason for him to be in that unit.
"He is entitled to a mainstream education like everyone else," she added.
East Riding of Yorkshire Council said arrangements had been made to send him to school full-time, but his mother had decided not to send him.
"The school is following guidance from the local authority and the Government in ensuring that George can access his entitlement to education in a safe environment."
Head Andrew Williams said staff were working towards an acceptable solution.
"My main concern is to ensure that we meet the health and welfare needs of all students in our care."
I think I’m developing an allergy to bureaucratically inspired ambulance-chasing shyster lawyers...
PS LOVE your tag line!
This is exactly what FR has said should be done in the past on these threads. Some minds changing?
I guess we both could go to England....
You are right, using an EpiPen is not a big deal...
So you can die by breathing the air near where someone is eating gluten, like is the case with peanuts? Learn something new every day ...
My son has a severe peanut allergy for which he could die, and I’d like to protect him from death even if it means I think some other kids should suffer the great humans right violation of eating bologna for school lunch instead of pbj if they want to sit at the same table as my son ... which fact will probably qualify me for flaming on this thread.
So be it.
I just wonder why some people evidently take pleasure in the misfortune of others.
Nothing. The allergic kids are safe, and you’re daughter can still eat her precious pbj.
Why is this absurd? Nut allergys are not particularly rare, and can be life threatening. Nuts are not exactly one of the basic food groups, so if you make it safe for those students at the cost of not serving nuts the only people who suffer are the nut growners. I like pecan pie, but I'd be willing to give up eating it in restaurants if having pecan pie puts other at risk of dying. (I can always bake some at home - better anyway) There's nothing so great about nuts that banning them causes any harm. (you don't happen to be a pecan grower do you?)
And this would be bad because? Would anyone in their right mind WANT to shake dismal Jimmy's hand?
Nothing
Absurd.
As absurd as completely banning all nuts (and nut products and items which may have the remote possibility of having some relation to nuts) from a school campus because one student has an allergy??
As absurd as sueing airlines to force them to stop serving airline peanuts because someone who has an allergy *might* want to fly someday??
Since when has the world gone so topsy-turvy that the vast majority must now adjust to accomodate the tiniest minority, instead of the other way around??
Bravo! I could not have said that any better ping.
This is an eye-opening article concerning pregnancy and peanut allergies:
http://www.product-reviews.net/2007/09/25/mothers-told-to-eat-peanuts-in-pregnancy-after-years-of-warnings-to-avoid-them/
I'm with you! If a kid is allergic to peanuts, why punish the whole bloody school?
This makes a lot more sense than banning nuts and peanut butter from school.
Though I wouldn’t call him a “health and safety risk.” I’d tell ‘em the truth - he’s a lawsuit waitin’ to happen.
That happened last year at my son’s school. The little girl is no longer attending, so I can smear peanut butter all over him again.
Thank God, it must have been horrible for your child had to wait until 3:00 to eat peanut butter. Has he recovered from the trauma?
There was no trauma smart butt. Where in my post did I indicate that?
Her precious peanut butter and jelly sandwich someone called it.
But see to me it is precious. Not because it is a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, or that it is her favorite thing to eat. But because it goes deeper than that.
Yesterday it was the peanut butter and jelly sandwich banned.
Today its the doughnuts at the senior citizen center. Too many carbs and fat and sugar you know and not good for their cholesterol.
I already cant pray out loud anywhere in public.(Not if you
are Christian anyway.) Geesh God is being erased from buildings and documents as we speak. People can trash my religion and I have no right to defend it or I am labled ignorant and intolerant.
People can trash my country and its laws and I have no right to defend it or I am labeled a racist and a bigot. I have to read Spanish as I enter and exit buildings,
and have you seen instructions for anything lately? forget it! It takes 15 minutes just to find where the English part is. I already have to push 1 for English.
Who knows what it will be tomorrow. Will I still be able to wear my favorite perfume because I might unwittingly offend someone thats allergic to perfumes? Or will it be in the not
so distant future when we are told that that we MUST have insurance and what insurance to have, or face a penalty? Or when will they begin to tell us we have to go this doctor or that doctor,and when we have to go and what information he will share with whomever? And when they have chipped away at it, starting with seemingly harmless bans, will guns be next? Well, we can safely say they are already trying that too.
We cant simply pick and choose ..one from column A and two from column B, for the freedoms we are willing to just give away. Because before you know it, there will only be column A and that wont have that many choices on it.
Where and when do we draw the line?
A precious peanut butter and jelly sandwich?
You darn right it is.
Whenever you hear a left wing Socialist say “It’s for the chilruns”, that is code word for “grab your ankles and bend over, we are going to take your money and freedom away from you for the greater good.”
just wonder why some people evidently take pleasure in the misfortune of others
Looks like you do. You don't give a flip about others, only your own. Your rights do NOT trump my rights (at least they shouldn't in a just world).
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