Parents angered by son's suspension over peanut cookies ["You cannot speak to the principal,"....]

NJ.COM ^

[Sub-Driver]

SOUTH ORANGE, N.J. (AP) — The parents of a sixth-grader say they are outraged over an indefinite suspension of their son after he was accused of threatening to expose a highly allergic teacher to peanut butter cookies.

The boy's father, Loubert Gabriel, said his 12-year-old son, Jules, was suspended on April 2 after a girl in his social studies class at South Orange Middle School made the accusation.

[goldstategop]

Peanut Butter Sends Teacher To The Nutter. Film at 11.

[Xenalyte]

Y'know, I am 35 years old and attended public school all my life. I never knew one child who was allergic to peanuts. My sister is 32 and my brother is 28, and I asked them - they remember no such allergy.

If it's real, what made it happen in the '80s?

[AzSteven]

40 years old - been allergic to peanuts since I was about 10. I can, however, eat small amounts of peanut butter, but it has to be creamy and low in oil content. Prior to 10, I ate peanuts all the time. Why can't you get an allergy to stuff that you don't like? Seems unfair...

[TLI]

I have never seen or heard of anyone I know or anyone they know that had this..

[DB]

Its very real.

And very deadly.

Personally I think the teacher should have another profession instead of forcing her situation on hundreds if not thousands of others.

[vin-one]

early exposure to peanuts prior to being above 1 year old....

So I have been told.....from what I understand it is rare, but that is the reason arilines don't serve peanuts anymore.......

[katnip]

It's hard to believe they are keeping this boy out of school for well over a MONTH based on unproven accusations.

Why do they have to wait till MAY for the Superintendents hearing?

These people need a good lawyer ASAP.

[billorites]

My kids go to a private school and peanut products are verboten.

They have nut nazis who phreak out when a PBJ appears on campus.

[Cobra Scott]

Peanut allergies are very real, and can be fairly deadly. They have been known for at least 50 years. It is one of the "real" allergies worth considering safeguards for, if you are the one with the allergy. But this is plain dumb. Either charge the child with conspiracy to commit murder (and prepare to be ridiculed) or have a quick sit-down with the parents and that should be the end of it.

[humblegunner]

If it's real, what made it happen in the '80s?

Jimmy Carter??? (1977-1981)

[goldstategop]

I can just see Michael Moore's next documentary project: Peanut Butter Massacre.

[DB]

My sister's friend died from it.

The man was at a BBQ where he asked if any peanut oil was used in the BBQ sauce. The cook said no. It turned out otherwise.

[Glenn]

If it's real, what made it happen in the '80s?

It's very real. My daughter, who is 4, has been to the ER three times after being exposed to whatever it is in peanuts that causes the reaction. She's not a pretty sight when it happens.

My wife and I take it in stride. We make sure she takes the responsibility for what she puts in her mouth instead of making the world conform to her. (I don't trust the world to watch out for my kid.) It's worked well for us. She does a firm but friendly interrogation of food contents.

[billorites]

"From my cold, dead fingers..."

[Nataku X]

Peanut butter has not been a staple for *that* long. It seems to be caused by an overexposure at an early age, so if kids have been munching on PBJ since the 50s, it stands to reason that these allergies wouldn't begin popping up in large numbers until the PB-loving Baby Boomers started having children.

I've heard anecdotes of mothers ingesting ungodly huge amounts of PB while pregnant and then giving birth to peanut-butter-allergic kids. It seems to be an immune reaction. Everything in moderation...

[ladylib]

I guess they don't want this kid back in school. Maybe his parents should take him on a vacation somewhere. When they come back, they can make plans to homeschool him.

[EllaMinnow]

When Nutter Butters are outlawed, only outlaws will have Nutter Butters.

Now I'm starting to crave some...

[cinFLA]

So I have been told.....from what I understand it is rare, but that is the reason arilines don't serve peanuts anymore.......

I thought it was because they were too cheap to anymore.

[Poohbah]

It is rare, usually brought about by exposure to peanuts or peanut products as an infant, particularly if said infant was not nursed. The reaction can be fatal.

This threat should have been responded to with premeditated self-defense on the teacher's part.

[TheBigB]

Nyaah nyahh...I'm a weapon of mass itching!

[whereasandsoforth]

This whole peanut crap is ridiculous. I am "deadly" alergic to wasps, but they are everywhere, including schoolyards.

This peanut hysteria is more about the racist left trying to deny George Washington Carver his due. That damn uppity scientist!

[old3030]

Next it will be the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Peanuts. They can shuffle the letters a little and make it the PFAT.

[FormerLib]

I don't trust the world to watch out for my kid.

I'm certainly sorry to hear about the challenges that your daughter has to face, but I'm convinced that you're taking the right precautions in the face of this.

[Samurai_Jack]

[vin-one]

no you can still get some tasty pretzels.....
and maybe even a cracker or two.......

but no peanuts!!!!!then again I have been wrong once before.....

[Texagirl4W]

This IS a real threat. My 8 year old nephew is so allergic that he has a portable nebulizer with him at all times that he knows how to use if needed. His mother bought a portable one after he had a reaction in an airplane. Airplanes don't have electrical outlets for passengers to use. The pilot called ahead to have paramedics meet the boy at the plane. This may be rare but it's real.

[justlurking]

Step away from the cookie!

[TC Rider]

I once had a co-worker who was alergic to peanuts. He would swell up, turn red, and be unable to breath. That was his reaction one day at a McDonalds, where the employees swore they did not use peanut oil. He ate two fries and went off.

He's probably 50 now.

[ladylib]

"You cannot speak to the principal," she said.

Can we e-mail him/her?

It must be a blast going to public school today, always having to watch your back because you don't know who, for whatever reason, is going to snitch on you. No such thing as due process anymore either.

[LanPB01]

Well, I don't know anyone that personally suffers from the peanut allergy, but there was a scene in "The DaVinci Code" where it was used to murder someone.

[Iron Matron]

The teacher allergic teacher needs to be FIRED! She obviously knows nothing about her young charges and is intolerant.

The priciple and all authorities involve in keeping this child from school should be called into account as well and FIRED.

These parents need to try and afford a PRIVATE school where NAZIS are not the authority.

[bmwcyle]

"You cannot speak to the principal," she said.

Can you send the principal a case of peanuts?

[AppyPappy]

I am 35 years old and attended public school all my life. I never knew one child who was allergic to peanuts.

That's because they all died from Nutter Butter poisoning before you could meet them.

[hgro]

God bless us, a Jimmy Carter moment.

[muawiyah]

Folks with nut allergies have the same obligation diabetics have ~ namely, READ THE LABELS. And if there are no labels, don't take the risk!

I read every label. If it says as much as 2g carbohydrates per "serving", I don't eat it!

[AppyPappy]

My wife is convinced it's a ruse to get attention. There are a dozen kids deathly allergic to peanuts at the school but none have ever had a reaction despite being accidentally exposed. Some will realize they have been exposed and come unglued but nothing major.

Imagine this. Your child is deathly allergic to peanuts. Schools are full of peanuts. Do you send your child to their possible death? Not a chance at our house. I guess we are just weird that way.

[ladyjane]

A freshman at Brown University died a few years ago. She was at a restaurant and asked if the chili had any peanuts in it. Cook said no. Cook was wrong. The girl died after ingesting a very small amount.

[Jadge]

When I was in college, we had huge party in our NYU dorm/apartment. The party was busted by an RA, and one of first things said to us in the scolding was "parties like this cannot be tolerated, because a student could get drunk and mistakenly consume food containing peanuts, triggering an allergic reaction resulting in death." Apparently, that happened once and NYU got sued.

On a similar note, my boss's daughter is highly allergic to peanuts and cannot even ingest dust from cracked peanut shells. It is real.

[Integrityrocks]

"... a girl who does not like his son .."

Me thinks me smells something afoul. Could it be that this kid is a "general" troublmaker and maybe it was a perverbial straw for the principal? I just can't see a suspension like this for a kid who has had a "good student" track record in the past. I just get the feeling he's not so innocent.

[Doctor Stochastic]

Exposure to the oil vapor is enough in the case of peanuts. Eating isn't necessary.

[Twinkie]

I know. You used to never hear of any such thing.
Maybe it's the pesticides they spray on the crops
in storage or in the fields.

[nina0113]

I think it's partly something to do with whatever they changed in peanut butter - in the 60's it was utterly disgusting, thick and grainy and I hated it. The current stuff is pretty good. I think another factor is that because there are peanuts in absolutely everything these days, early childhood exposure is almost unavoidable.

I read an article a couple of years ago about a woman whose child was deathly allergic (and was insisting that no child who attended the same school with hers should be allowed to bring peanut butter sandwiches for lunch) who had had such severe "morning" sickness that the only thing she could keep down was peanut butter - she ate a jar a day.

I'm 44 and didn't start hearing about peanut allergies till maybe ten or fifteen years ago.

[DB]

I agree, it's your life to lose.


I just had some pie yesterday that had 51g of carbs...

I don't do it often...

Otherwise I gain weight...

[packing heat]

Nazis are from the far right and Communists are from the far left.
Can we get this straight and start calling them Communists from now on?

[Cobra64]

Peanut allergies are very real, and can be fairly deadly.

That's one of the reasons that many airlines no longer offer peanut snacks.

[packing heat]

I had a lot of people not like me in school and I didn't cause much trouble. I was honest and blatantly forthright in my convictions. That bothered a lot of people.
Even if this kid is a troublemaker, they shouldn't suspend him indefinitely. They have no right to go to such lengths.
In addition, they are holding him suspended on one accusation, not because he's a known troublemaker. If that is the case, then they need to make that clear.

[muawiyah]

51g?

I haven't had that much in a month!

[Iron Matron]

Nazis are from the far right and Communists are from the far left.
Can we get this straight and start calling them Communists from now on?


LOL! O. K. Done.

[tiki]

When I was 4 my brother's witnessed a boy die in the cafeteria because of peanuts, that was 1957.