This is "Nuts"

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Synoposis of story - a girl in Florida has a peanut allergy that is so severe that all the other kids and the teachers are required to wash their hands and rinse out their mouths before entering. The allergy is so severe that even the scent of peanuts can trigger a potentially life-threatening reaction.

Now, I understand that the state is legally obligated to provide an education to everybody. So they cannot simply say she cannot come to school. So despite the fuss that other parents have made (suggesting she should be home schooled), they cannot make the parents do that. If the girl keeps coming to school, the other children will have to be inconvenienced.

But my question is why the hell do the parents WANT their child in a public school if her allergy is so severe? Do they really think humans are infallible? That every single teacher is going to check to make sure every single student washes and rinses every single day for the entire year? I think they a placing way too much faith in the school in that there is zero margin for error. If it were my kid, they would definitely be home schooled. It's a life and death situation.

Story.

 

More importantly why isn't the child wearing appropriate apparatus that would nullify a lot of the hassle?

 

Rights are rights but common sense is common sense. In addition, EVERYONE has certain rights. I have heard of some schools asking the parents not to feed their kids peanut butter at home. Stop and consider that for a moment -- it's one thing to say "don't bring a PB&J sandwich to school", it's another for the school to try to dictate what people do in the privacy of theior own homes, for the sake of a tiny few people with severe medical problems.

I am not without sympathy for those with such allergies, and I believe in reasonable accomodation, but the key word is reasonable. If this kid ends up having a reaction, then the parents are going to start the blame game and go after the teacher, the principal, and the school board. In Insurance terms, it's a nightmare.

Bottom line, the kid needs to be in a special school or home schooled. The huge disruption this is causing infringes on the rights of the other children to learn and the rights of the teachers to not have to walk on eggshells all the time. It's ridiculous.

 

While I sympathize for the girl, I suspect this is an attempt by her parents to cash in on the lawsuit-happy U.S. of A. when she inevitably suffers an allergic peanut reaction.

 

I don't see the big deal in this. I like peanuts but they're hardly a major staple food. It shouldn't be hard for parents not to give their kids peanuts on the days they're going into school.

 

Peanuts are a staple in the US. I think if you polled the average kid in the US that brings their lunch, peanut butter and jelly sandwich would be the number one food item.

 

Sorry that I'm a bit off topic, but "nuts" is definitely not my favorite topic right now!

 

Different from here so. I still don't think it's unreasonable to ask people to cut out peanuts though, given that it's a life threatening condition. I don't think it's right to ask the child to spend her entire life locked up.

 

To add to dmc's comments, PB&J is the most cost efficient lunch to send with a kid. Are you going to force parents to spend more than they have? Is the school district going to supplement the added costs to lunches? What about every type of dessert product which has the warning of the potential of peanut contamination (because peanuts are in some candy made in the same factory) -- nobody is allowed to have dessert in school either?

I feel sorry for the girl and her family but how is that everyone elses problem?

 

When did peanut allergies become popular anyway? I don't remember there even being testing for such a thing when I was in school.

 

lets not forget that children are stubborn, and will intentionally do something dangerous without realising just to thumb their nose up at authority.

 

All I can think of is the little girl, not only does she live in fear of dying all the time. She is also a freak, a freak for whom it is dangerous to interact with other children, a freak who forces everyone else through so much hassle just to go to school, a freak telling everyone else what they can and can't do. My heart breaks thinking about it.

Man, I have said it before and I will say it again, life is not fair.

 

This is not 'Nuts'. Pea'nuts' are in fact beans

As for that girl, put her in a spacesuit.

 

I was thinking along those lines as well. The potential to exposure is so great that to me it's not a question of if this girl gets exposed to them, it's when.

What do you mean by popular? I don't think it's popular to have any type of allergy. Do you mean common? If so, it's not common - very few people have peanut allergies. I'm quite sure the school wasn't responsible for testing for it either. I'm sure she and her parents knew they she had peanut allergies long before she went to school.

He (or she) is SOL - and needs to expand their diet. LKD's previous comment above is accurate. There are schools that have banned PB&J for lunches - literally telling students you cannot bring that item into the school. That happened in a school where my wife used to teach. However, they didn't have to wash their hands and rinse their mouths before entering the building.

 

I don't think peanut allergy is popular today, I think it's that more people survive with the allergy today.

As a second thought on this ... if the school and school district restrict what foods can be brought into the school then they should simply provide lunch and snack to all kids free of charge. You want a restricted menu, you pay for it.

 

In schools where you actually do "pay for it" - like daycare and pre-school, that's exactly what they do. One of the things that surprised me about Jack's breif experience at pre-school was that no outside food was allowed. They had a cook who prepared all the snacks and lunches.

That was actually one of the things that pissed Jack off - his beverage of choice is juice (any kind - apple, pear, grape, orange), and the pre-school only provided water and milk. It apparently was a daily discussion - they asked him if he wanted water or milk, and he'd always say he'd rather have juice. When they told him he couldn't have juice he'd always tell them that he really didn't want water or milk. He was always polite about it - he never yelled or threw a tantrum or anything, but he was quite unhappy about the whole thing.

 

I was being facetious. I just don't remember there being such a thing when I was in school. The words 'peanut' and 'allergy' were never mentioned together that I can recall. It's only in more recent times that I've heard of peanut allergies at all.

My nephew has some kind of nut allergy, but his only limitation is that he can't eat said nut, not that he can't breath the air where a nut has been or anything like that.

 

That's way more common. The girl has an uncharacterisitcally severe allergy - it's rare that you cannot even breath "peanut air" (for lack of a better word).

 

So do the parents stop people in the street and tell to wash their hands and rinse their mouths before walking past the kid?