Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

School 'Peanut Gallery' Raises Eyebrows [Peanut Butter Sammich eaters segregated]
Fox News Online ^ | 1/4/05 | Jeff Goldblatt

Posted on 01/04/2005 7:54:07 AM PST by TheBigB

YORKTOWN, Ind. — Savannah Dowling is a typical 8-year-old girl; much of her protein comes from peanut butter sandwiches.

However, if she wants to bring one to Central Indiana's Pleasant View Elementary School, she has to eat it at a special table in the cafeteria to accommodate one first grader with a severe allergy. Soon she'll have to take her lunch to an area the school is calling the "peanut gallery" so the one child with the peanut allergy isn't affected.

"I don't think everybody should have to suffer because of one kid," said Mike Raper, a critic of the idea and fiancé of Savannah's mother. "I think it's a terrible precedent. Basically, because there's nowhere to draw the line. You've got people allergic to milk, wheat. My own son's diabetic. There's just no where to draw that line."

School Superintendent Mary Ann Irwin called it "one of the most challenging" accommodations the school has made for its students.

(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society
KEYWORDS: allergy; foodallergies
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 41-6061-8081-100 ... 261-269 next last
To: ProtectOurFreedom

Peanut allergies are real.

I've seen it happen.

My nephew is very allergic and he got a hold of a chocolate chip cookie that was made in the same factory that makes peanut butter cookies and his throught closed up and he couldn't breath.

Luckily, my wife is a PICU nurse and happened to have an EpiPen in her purse.


61 posted on 01/04/2005 8:17:48 AM PST by nuffsenuff
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 48 | View Replies]

To: Gone GF; RexFamilia
"Can slight exposure to garlic kill you in seconds? If so, you should definitely have special accomodations."

Should that include having as much hysteria as possilble about garlic and those that are inconsiderate enough to actually consume it?

62 posted on 01/04/2005 8:17:52 AM PST by Sam's Army (No witty taglines currently come to mind)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 38 | View Replies]

To: eyespysomething

I have an allergy to peanuts as well, not diagnosed until I was well into adulthood. Although not severe my doctor said it will become worse with subsequent exposures.

It is easier for me to avoid exposures but in some cases there is no choice. If this is a life-threatening situation for the child by all means protect the child.
In worst cases just exposure to pollen from peanuts can cause a severe reaction that requires imediate medical intervention. So isolating someone from peanut exposure may not be so simple. Peanut butter on unwashed hand of a child can potentially cause a severe reaction for some. So how do you seperate the peanut consumers from those who suffer allergys? The school could ban peanut butter completely so the child would not have to be isolated. But I think giving the child a peanut-free location option is the only choice, like it or not.

Thankfully for me that is not the case as of now, but could be in the future. Even peanut cooking oil causes a noticible reaction so in the big picture avoidance is the best option when possible. Peanut allergy is more common than people realize.


63 posted on 01/04/2005 8:17:54 AM PST by o_zarkman44
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: oso blanco

What's wrong with putting all the PB kids tpgether for lunch? Maybe they would make some new friends.

My son, now 30 something, has a PB allergy. When he was in elementary school (Jimmy Carter Presidency) the cafeteria lady told him that because the french fries were cooked in peanut oil(part of the school lunch gov't surplus program) he couldn't have them. I called the school just to ask if the next time veg.oil was purchased it could be of the non-peanut variety. Fortunately, he was attending a private school and a portion of FF was cooked just for him.

This is a serious problem for any child/person who is so affected.


64 posted on 01/04/2005 8:17:57 AM PST by matchgirl (God Bless our troops and our President)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 20 | View Replies]

To: TheBigB

LOL! [ Repeat 300 times ]


65 posted on 01/04/2005 8:17:57 AM PST by stainlessbanner
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 47 | View Replies]

To: ProtectOurFreedom
that's cause in your day (and my parents were a throw back) the cure for ADD was a spanking or a stern lecturing on the importance of school, extra chores, or not being able to go out with friends.

Now a days it's ridilen.

okay that is over simplifying the problem. In my Opinion more then half of ADD cases is the explanation used for bad teachers, bad parents, and dumb kids. I'd say less then half, maybe less then a third is because kids need actual brain or mood altering drugs
66 posted on 01/04/2005 8:19:16 AM PST by tfecw (dolphins are the spawn of evil)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 48 | View Replies]

To: Gone GF
"Just as with anything else with children, you give them more trust and responsibility as they get older. This is how life is."

Yeah, but what if it was YOUR child?

67 posted on 01/04/2005 8:19:17 AM PST by Sam's Army (No witty taglines currently come to mind)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 50 | View Replies]

To: massgopguy
My first reaction was that this was going to screw up the condom distribution plan.ROFLOL! What a dilemma, huh? Stop the cucumber training or endanger the life of one allergenic student?
68 posted on 01/04/2005 8:19:18 AM PST by ProtectOurFreedom
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 21 | View Replies]

To: 1Old Pro; AppyPappy
Oddly, I don't remember kids dropping dead in the cafeteria during peanut-butter day.

It's a new phenomenon, probably something to do with taking the pill, global warming, and Bush.

Actually it's thought that it's due to the increasing use of soy-based formula for children. Soy is a legume (and thus is related to peanuts), and the introduction of leguminous proteins to a vulnerable infant system may set the stage for later peanut allergies. Should've stuck with breastfeeding, or cow or goat milk -- all of which worked fine for thousands of years.

69 posted on 01/04/2005 8:19:26 AM PST by Rytwyng (we're here, we're Huguenots, get used to us)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 24 | View Replies]

To: Gone GF
Now, imagine this is YOUR child.

My child would be learning at home - not being exposed to stupidity in public school.

70 posted on 01/04/2005 8:19:28 AM PST by UseYourHead (Beware of the Rinos - McCain, Hagel, Lugar, and Specter)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 33 | View Replies]

To: curlewbird
I loooooove peanuts and peanut butter, but for the last year or so I haven't been able to eat it AT ALL!! Even food cooked in peanut oil! Makes me very ILL!! And I am in my 30's!! My sis developed a shellfish allergy this way too!!

Then there needs to be a law prohibiting restaurants from selling shellfish and food cooked with peanut oil. Its that simple.

71 posted on 01/04/2005 8:19:35 AM PST by Labyrinthos
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 53 | View Replies]

To: ProtectOurFreedom
Maybe peanut allergy is somehow related to ADD which also didn't seem to exist in my youth

ADD is severely over-diagnosed. The majority of kids (mostly boys) who are diagnosed with ADD are normal, high-energy kids.

ADD does exist and kids who really have it should be treated. However, real ADD sufferers make up a minority of the kids who are "diagnosed" with ADD.

72 posted on 01/04/2005 8:19:37 AM PST by Modernman (What is moral is what you feel good after. - Ernest Hemingway)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 48 | View Replies]

To: Gone GF

It doesn't kill me, I just violently sick.

We don't keep garling at home (or products containing garlic, however my wife uses garlic whenever I misbehave. She adds a bit on my meals just to show she can make my life hell; my revenge is to barf all over the place.


73 posted on 01/04/2005 8:19:57 AM PST by RexFamilia
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 38 | View Replies]

To: AppyPappy

My four year old cousin recently almost died from sticking his finger in a cake that had almonds in it. He didn't eat the cake, he just stuck his finger in the icing. So I'm sorry if your memory is a little foggy, but some food allergies are no joke. Still, if the kid does have such a serious allergy to peanuts, maybe he should eat in a seperate 'peanut butter free' zone instead of everyone else having to sit in a special section if they want to eat peanut butter.


74 posted on 01/04/2005 8:20:37 AM PST by jamesissmall218
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: HenryLeeII
I've always felt that if a person is exposed to what they are allergic to, he/she will eventually develop an immunity to it.

It's generally the other way around. More exposure causes more sensitivity.

Another example.

75 posted on 01/04/2005 8:20:40 AM PST by Doctor Stochastic (Vegetabilisch = chaotisch is der Charakter der Modernen. - Friedrich Schlegel)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 56 | View Replies]

To: retrokitten
>Wouldn't it make more sense to just set up a "no
>peanut butter table"? Then the allergic children and
>anyone that wanted to sit with them could do so, as
>long as they didn't have a pb&j. And the rest could
>go about their lunch without it being made into a big deal.

Yes, that would make much more sense. That's probably why they aren't doing it.

Not to mention it would be far easier to watch for peanut butter at one table than to search every kid and direct the pb&j wielders to their corner. IMO.

76 posted on 01/04/2005 8:21:06 AM PST by Antonello
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 43 | View Replies]

To: KevinDavis
This is getting out of hand.. What next a meat free zone?

I think the easiest solution is to try to teach our children on what political correctness is. Then when they start seeing it in the classroom, they can fall on the floor holding their ears screaming in pain. Then we invent a syndrome and relate it to political correctness. All PC teachers would have to be isolated and children are saved.

77 posted on 01/04/2005 8:21:38 AM PST by Bommer
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: Gone GF

If it were my child and she had a condition where exposure to a common substance could cause instant death, I wouldn't place her in the hands of beaurocrats. That's why I am not convinced that the peanut scare is on the level. What parent in their right mind would send their child into that kind of risk?

I find it ironic that the Muslim kids at my kids' school are not allowed to eat marshmallows because they contain gelatin. And gelatin contains...well, you don't want to know what gelatin contains. But they eat jello. Hello!!


78 posted on 01/04/2005 8:21:42 AM PST by AppyPappy (If You're Not A Part Of The Solution, There's Good Money To Be Made In Prolonging The Problem.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 59 | View Replies]

To: cspackler

"Fine, so have a "Peanut Free" area in the cafeteria, problem solved. Whay have the inverse?"

In my first post I said I'm not sure the school is using the best solution. However, I strongly disagree with the people who think the child is part of some "fringe group."

"This child will not go through life with his/her path being cleared before him/her of peanuts, just better get used to it."

This is true, but as I pointed out in another post, we protect very young children from other dangers -- street traffic, going places by themselves -- simply because they are too young to safely handle these things by themselves. As they get older we don't coddle them as much. Exactly why should this life-threatening allergy be any different?


79 posted on 01/04/2005 8:22:11 AM PST by Gone GF
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 51 | View Replies]

To: Rytwyng

That's a good possibility. I have also heard that soy effects the reproductive organs. A possible cause of kids literally maturing too fast? Just a thought. I know I do not have anything with soy in it. It does weird things to me.


80 posted on 01/04/2005 8:22:26 AM PST by retrokitten
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 69 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 41-6061-8081-100 ... 261-269 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson