Parents picket girl with peanut allergy, ask her to withdraw from school

A student at Edgewater Elementary School in Volusia County, Florida is being asked to withdraw from the school by her classmates' parents.

The student has a life-threatening peanut allergy and, as a result, her classmates are asked to make accommodations to ensure her safety. Some parents of children at the school say the extra steps their children are taking to ensure the girl's health, such as washing their hands or rinsing out their mouths, are taking away from their own children's learning. Meanwhile, the school is standing by its decision to make accommodations for the student.

Do your kids have allergies? What's your take on the situation?

Source & Videos: http://amfix.blogs.cnn.com/2011/03/24/parents-picket-girl-with-peanut-allergy-ask-her-to-withdraw-from-school/?iref=obnetwork


I've never known anyone with an allergy like this... but what does having them use mouthwash and wash their hands accomplish? I definitely understand them asking parents to not send any peanut products... but I don't get this.

I definitely think it's overkill to ask the parents of this girl to take her out of school! Having kids use mouthwash and wash their hands can only be beneficial to them :-/

Yes, some kids do suffer life threatening peanut allergies that are triggered by merely smelling it on other's breath/having fleeting contact. I know someone with a peanut allergy of that severity, she's in her 20s now but is still as badly affected as she was as an infant. It's very rare, but I can understand why the school would be unwilling to risk triggering an attack - an epipen only buys you time in severe anaphylaxis, and not always sufficent time to start emergency medical treatment.

I don't see anything wrong with asking the kids to do this.
If it were my child, and s/he had such an extreme allergy, I'd probably home school. Too many kids eat PB and Jelly. Too many chances. Too much of a risk and it's not worth it IMO. I'd just home school until she was old enough.

as a medic I have seen allergies this severe - where just peanut dust can trigger a life threatening allergic reaction. However I kinda see the parents point of view. There are school districts both in Illinois and Cali that have banned all home brought food including lunches due to a student having severe allergies. Over kill - hell yes.
But then so is asking the child to with-draw from school. She has every right to attend the school as any other child.

At my youngest daughter's school (elm level) we have a list of foods that can and cannot be sent into the classroom - it includes nuts, peanut butter, choc and strawberry products. However in an effort to deal with specific allergies, the children with these allergies eat their lunch in the teacher's room (like a break room) so that they arent exposed to said foods in the main lunch room.

I think all kids ought to be forced to wash their hands when they come in from lunch recess just to get them used to healthy habits - mouth wash however is a little over kill. There is a reason why they stopped during mandatory fluroide (sp?) rinses once a month in public schools

According to the various articles, it was agreed by the school board that mouth washing was overkill - it wasn't even part of the recommendations for this child - and so they have stopped it, and instead the children wipe their mouth with a cloth (not with a Clorox wipe as some parents thought!). Gosh, I can see how all the resentments arose - seems a lot of changing of procedures and confusions!

Oh my hell, god forbid we ask our children to wash their hands and use mouthwash! Obviously these children's parents have no idea what it's like to have a severe allergy or they wouldn't be complaining so much.

One of my old co-workers had a severe peanut allergy and during work events if there were peanuts involved we needed to keep them in a closed airtight container. Usually she just wouldn't even go in to the breakroom. If she touched a peanut she would have a reaction, it was that bad.

While it might seem a little ridiculous to have to use mouthwash and wash your hands all the time, for some peoples allergies it's necessary. For example, if I just got done eating a handful of peanuts and then shook my old co-workers hand, if she started swelling up, I would feel like a giant bitch. So perhaps these parents need to understand that. If I was the child I would probably just want to be homeschooled because it seems like a big pain in the ass to make your classmates accommodate like that, but she shouldn't be ASKED to do that.

"omg! This girl is making my kid learn how to wash his hands and keep his mouth clean! EVIL CHILD!" To the parents who want the kid withdrawn: get over yourself. Personal hygeneine should already been taught to your dirty child.

*like*

I think this is so stupid. God forbid your child eat something other then peanut products. God forbid your child learn to keep other people in mind when they do something.

My 8yr old sister doesn't eat anything but peanut butter & jelly sandwiches when it comes to sandwiches so we had her buy lunch or made something else she liked to take into lunch. She has a friend that is allergic to peanuts, not as sever as this little girl, but because of that she couldn't sit with him most days. It was a bummer but never once did my parents think to ask for my sister to be transfered to a different class or to have the boy removed. That is so selfish of the parents because you know if it was their child they woul demand that the school make accommdations for them.

Besides shouldn't children wash their hands before & after eating when it comes to lunch time at school? Call me crazy, but I think they should. For the children I've been around when volunteering, I really really wish they had mouthwash after lunch. GOOD LORD!

can't the kids just not bring peanut related things to school? if they don't then they don't have to wash there hands/mouths all the time.

Yea, but there are lots of 'non peanut' related foods and stuff that come into contact with peanuts where ever they are prepared and stuff. So things like bread and cereals even sauces, crackers and rice cakes can be cross-contaminated with traces of peanuts, even though they aren't actually an ingredient in the food.

I think the point about washing their mouths out is incase they then cough on her or something. I think it's incredibly selfish of those parents to ask for her to be removed. Surely they're only asked to wash their hands after eating so I fail to see how their education can be suffering.

Ah, I didn't think of that ;D But that definitely does make sense!

Those parents are just assholes. Heaven forbid the kids have good hygiene and use mouthwash and wash their hands! Seems to me like they're teaching the kids good life skills ;)

They also have to wash their hands before they enter the classroom, according to the video. I suppose if they are young children, this could be quite time consuming, as would the mouthwashing - just the whole crowd control thing, getting little kids to all go through extra procedures.

From the picket signs, it looks like there is also a financial concern - parents feel the money they are paying for their child's education is actually going towards the special needs of the child with the peanut allergy? It would be interesting to actually talk to some of these parents and see what the issues actually are, because I imagine the news coverage isn't going to cover them all. It looks like there have been a lot of different things that have added up.

actually from my understanding from what I've read on our local news sites, the kids have to go through the hand/ mouth washing in the morning, after lunch and in the afternoon. So if you figure 20ish kids 3 times a day that does start to add up time wise.

I live not too far away from this school, and what the parents are upset about is that it's taking half an hour or more out of the schedule each week, time that's meant for the kids to be learning.

NOT that I agree with the parents reactions to this, I'm just saying.

@Cuban Vixen: I'd probably be upset about the half hour if I actually felt like my kids paid attention the entire time they were in class ;D

I know I definitely don't sit there in class the entire time and pay attention!

What's that half hour gonna do? :P

I don't understand the fuss, unless a school likes to encourage poor hygiene students should be washing their hands before and after a meal, rinsing their mouth out wont exactly take a long time, it is a good thing to do as well as anything left in the mouth, such as acidic fruit juice will be washed away.

If my child was so severely allergic to peanuts that she would quite possibly die if she came into contact with them, then call me crazy, but I probably would voluntarily homeschool her until she was of an age where she could act on her own in case of contact. I understand the need to accommodate everyone, and I'm not against hand washing and banning peanut products, it's just the likelihood of something bad happening to the child that freaks me out. I would be devastated if somehow a peanut tainted product made it into my child's lunch and she inadvertently killed her classmate. In fact, one of my friends has a daughter who is allergic to peanuts, and while at a playdate my daughter let her eat off her plate. A new mom to the playgroup brought snacks that had peanut butter in them, not knowing we were peanut free, and my friend's child was eating them off my daughter's plate. They just thought they were sharing with each other, but her mother had to rush home to get the epi pen in case she had a reaction. It only takes one small mistake to have an issue. That is what is scary.

Surely the mother should be carrying the epi pen with her all the time, just in case. And surely, in the example in this thread, the teachers should be trained to use an epi pen and have one with them at all times, because there is always the possibility that some kind of peanut contact could happen, no matter how careful everyone is.

I can see how the parents at the school might be worried about what sort of blame will be apportioned to them if an accident happens - if the father of this girl is really overbearing and insistent on his rights, I can see how they'd be worried about potential lawsuits. And of course it would be horribly traumatic for any kid if they are the accidental cause of this girl's death, so I can see how parents would be worried about the guilt and trauma their own child might experience if an accident happens. I think the father also needs to take some responsibility, as in accepting that he is putting his child at risk by putting her into a mainstream school. The school can minimise risk but they can't possibly remove it altogether. They should do a risk assessment with the father and discuss this. I definitely think a case can be made for homeschooling the girl until she is old enough to be able to aware of the danger and avoiding it.

You know, I think normally she does, but I think she let her guard down because we (in the playgroup) all know that there are actually 2 kids in the group with legume allergies so we never bring anything with legumes in it. It just happened that this particular day, one of the moms invited a couple of neighbors who didn't know we were peanut free. It was just a fluke thing, but it is an example of how something can easily go wrong. And I agree with you, I'm sure the teachers are all trained in First Aid and know how to use an epi pen in case she is exposed. I just would be terrified to leave that huge responsibility to someone other than myself concerning my own child. It would make me, as a parent, feel very vulnerable.

Yeah, definitely. If I were a parent, I'd be waiting till the child was old enough to be aware of their allergy and able to actively ask if food has nuts in it and refuse when given food that might do. My little niece has quite a severe nut allergy, although it's improving as she gets older, and she is totally learning to check if food has nuts in and refuse if it does - and she is only five. I think it is important to teach the child to be alert, so the child grows up able to protect themselves. As far as I'm aware, there are a few precautions around nuts at my niece's school (as there are in any school, because nut allergy in kids is very common nowadays) but not to the extreme of those implemented in this American school.

But gosh, if a child could die simply from breathing the same air as someone who's eaten a nut, then definitely I'd be wanting to homeschool that kid to begin with if they were mine! If a person is that vulnerable, any contact with the outside world is going to be a huge risk.

Ugh. I'm so tired of hearing schools accommodating to one sick kid, but not to the educational needs of thousands of others.

Have any of you saying that they should home school their daughter taken into consideration that maybe they don't have a household that could survive on one paycheck? And god forbid these kids clean their hands after eating. What next? Are parents going to want their kids to not have to wash their hands after an art project? After playing outside? After using the bathroom? I don't see how having to wash their hands disrupts their education. I would be surprised if this little girl didn't start to feel like she's a bad kid. Whether they are going after the school or not, which is ridiculous, it comes off as them attacking her parents & her.

Some of you are saying the child should be taught to be alert of things with nuts in, what better place to learn this then at a school? Her house is already going to be a nut free zone. I know at the school my sister goes to & have volunteered in, you are not allowed to bring in home made treats. That a notice goes to all parents if they child is in a class with a child that has an allergy whether it's sever or not.

I stand by what I said in an earlier post, if this girl was the daughter of one of the parents picketing they would demand that the school make sure there are precautions in place. And quite frankly, if these parents have such an issue, they should take THEIR child out of school & home school THEM.

I don't believe anyone here has said that they should homeschool their daughter - from what I've seen, people have been saying what they personally would do, which is rather different from dictating what someone else should do.

Although I'm pretty sure that if finances were an issue, and the parents actually wanted to homeschool but couldn't afford it, that would totally be mentioned as part of the publicity, and people would be donating, and there would be some kind of financial aid. And she wouldn't be at what appears to be a private school! Anyway, the reasons the father gives for wanting the child in school have nothing to do with finance, so that's a bit of a non sequiter.

As for teaching of alertness, as I said, I would wait till she was a bit older first before letting her go to school. Further along in her cognitive development to understand consequences and looking ahead and taking control of her health. And I'd start in smaller environments, where I was also present and could monitor, and build up. She can't learn in this particular school environment anyway, if they are making everything completely nut free. The point of teaching a child to be alert is putting them in environments which aren't totally catered for them and nut-free - it teaches them to look after themselves and learn much-needed survival skills. Of course, this is bound to be speculative, because we haven't been given the details of the extent of this girl's nut allergy.