Posted on 03/22/2011 6:52:11 PM PDT by Dallas59
ORLANDO, Florida (Reuters) – Some public school parents in Edgewater, Florida, want a first-grade girl with life-threatening peanut allergies removed from the classroom and home-schooled, rather than deal with special rules to protect her health, a school official said.
"That was one of the suggestions that kept coming forward from parents, to have her home-schooled. But we're required by federal law to provide accommodations. That's just not even an option for us," said Nancy Wait, spokeswoman for the Volusia County School District.
Wait said the 6-year-old's peanut allergy is so severe it is considered a disability under the Americans with Disabilities Act.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
I thought the ADA provided reasonable accommodations? A simple solution would be for the girl to stay in one room or section of the school.
I have a friend (we’re in our late 40s) with a very severe peanut allergy. If her husband eats a peanut butter sandwich for lunch and kisses her six hours later, after brushing his teeth, she swells up and hyperventilates.
However, she survived public school in the 1970s, without the whole school’s being asked to accommodate her, or “contraband” sniffing dogs.
As a kid I refused to eat anything other than a PB&J sandwich for lunch everyday. So what would they do to me? Kick me out of school.
'Accommodation' does not mean stopping the world's rotation and sending in sniffer dogs.
A “reasonable accommodation” would be making sure there was food available for her that did not include peanuts.
Foster care and re-education.
What would these socialists loons do if one of the children was allergic to dogs?
Unfortunately, in today’s day and age, yes. There are entire districts in the area I live that have a zero tolerance to peanuts or any product that contains products. And yes, as a parent you have to sign stating you understand this (and other district policies) policy
This is getting out of hand. In the 70s-80s the kids had to learn how to live in a world with peanut in it (almost as if the school were teaching kids how to live on their own). Then lawyers and FAAN activists got involved, and parents were told their kids would DIE and schools were told the lawyers would SUE.
Now here we are with peanut sniffing dogs. Gee, what if the PA kid is allergic to DOGS?
THAT is the reasonable solution. Obviously, there is no one of reason at this school.
Brevard & Volushi counties are very liberal. Lot’s of people on the dole. With the Cape being shut down by the idiot they voted for they are in for a whole lot more misery. And I thought the dumb a$$es in Kalifornia where I live were stupid.
PS I have relatives in Florida, I know.
Who has the Reason to Homeschool ping list?
This must be reason 99,998 give or take a reason or two.
As I’ve seen with other children with severe disabilities (one example would be severe anxiety disorder), the school pays for a tutor so the child is provided with an education in their home environment. Why couldn’t the school accomodate her severe disability in her safe home environment providing a tutor? I wonder if her school district has a home school academy that she could be provided the bulk of her education in her home environment and then only in the school 1-2 half days a week
I had a girl in my Girl Scout troop with a gluten allergy, and another with diabetes. We made sure they had a snack they could eat during the meeting. We did not have to eliminate all wheat products or sugar from everyone else’s food or bring in the K-9 Officer to search for a cookie with *gasp* wheat flour or icing.
Not that the girls wouldn’t have loved seeing a police dog ...
I had a girlfriend who did that to me. Though my reaction was rather instantaneous.
I never realized I was allergic to her.
I guess its a good thing she's an ex-girlfriend.
Where did this peanut allergy thing come from?
When I was a kid, we all ate PB sandwiches and I don’t recall anyone ever swelling up, much less dying.
I know the allergy is quite real but is there any science explaining why?
LOL!
The peanut or (fill in the blank) allergy thing is completely out of hand.
On one hand, I despise this whole “accomodate me” mentality.
However, if we are smart, we can parlay this into a deconstruction of the minority mentality and, instead, promote the individual.....the foundation of our God-given rights and the foundation of this nation.
Now here we are with peanut sniffing dogs. Gee, what if the PA kid is allergic to DOGS?
__________________
or what if the kid is muslim and feels that dogs are “unclean”?
Denying peanuts to all the other kids is not a reasonable accomodation. Peanut products are an excellent source of protein and energy. It’s wrong to deny that to all the other kids just because there’s one kid with an allergy.
A kid with that serious of an allergy needs first and foremost to learn how to live and survive in a world that’s just chock full of peanuts. That... and how to work an Epi-Pen. Without those two skills they will die.
“I thought the ADA provided reasonable accommodations?”
I’m not sure that the ADA covers peanut allergies, or at least there are court rulings that say it doesn’t.
It's possible that the processing used in making peanut butter is different today or perhaps the chemicals used in growing peanuts.
This child will never recover from the emotional scars of being forced to endure public school under these circumstances. How much better for her to be schooled at home, or better yet, with others that suffer from life-threatening allergies. They could learn to cope together instead of facing their challenges with those who, although sympathetic, couldn’t possibly understand what they have to endure.
What are they going to do if they discover they have a sniffing dog allergic to peanuts?
Why should everyone suffer ???Home school the Kid, she belongs to them!
I can’t wait till the little fantasy world where we can afford EVERYTHING everyone’s little heart desires implodes, and gets it all over us...
School choice/vouchers would be ideal.
Are the other kids banned from eating peanuts at home too??
How ridiculous will this get?
“... if one of the children was allergic to dogs?”
Interesting point. A friend of my daughter has asthma and she will have an attack due to dog dander. Your point is very valid.
*
Poor kid. I can see having a peanut-free lunch table and banning peanut products from her homeroom. Beyond that, quite apart from the inconvenience to everyone else, she needs to learn to live in a world where there are peanuts. Her future workplace won’t make every employee gargle after lunch.
Aren’t there therapies that can lessen severe allergies by exposing patients to microscopic amounts of the substance over time? While she still wouldn’t be able to eat a peanut, I think there are treatments that could get her to where a stray particle wouldn’t kill her. Anyone know?
This is by no means an authoritative answer to your question, but I can give some information that may be a part. Allergic response is correlated with BMI. the higher the BMI you have the more likely you are to have a response. Thus, you can “develop” allergies, which are really allergies you always had, but only relize after you get heavy. As american are getting heavier, and generally less healthy to boot, I’m sure this is a big part of the problem. I am severly allergic to grass, and mint.
As a kid, grass bothered me, but growing up in the desert it was only a problem when I had to mow the “lawn” (a tiny patch of grass), I’d be sick for days. I normally weigh about 170, but a few years back after a severe accident, I gained almost 25 pounds due to inactivity. For the next year or so, even a mower cutting the lawn outside was enough to send me into a wheezing, hyperventilating death spiral (I’m being dramatic, I know). But after I lost the weight, the grass is still a nuisance, but I’ll be sure to maintain the lower weight from now on (Besides, I didn’t like the other added inconveniences of the extra weight anyway)!
Anyway, I think the rising overweightedness and obesity are heavily (no pun intended), contributing to the problem. Let the kids go out and play!
See my post at #33.
In Vietnam I decided that I had a severe allergy to copper coated lead pills (at least the ones heading my way), so I did all I could to avoid them. I succeeded and never had an “allergic reaction”.
/sarc
If there is something that is life threatening to you then take whatever action necessary to avoid that thing, even something as drastic as (gasp!) home schooling!
“A “reasonable accommodation” would be making sure there was food available for her that did not include peanuts.”
It’s not “reasonable” to be making food available at taxpayers expense in the first place, but “school lunches” have become another entitlement program.
In any case, her parents are the ones that should be making sure that she has food that she’s not allergic to, not making everyone else change their diet.
I home school now & I don't know what my daughter in law will do when the time comes for Matt to go to school. We just do things without peanuts & peanut oil. Matt will not have emotional scars even if he isn't home schooled. He will deal with his allergy like a normal kid would. And I don't think I like your idea of putting all kids who have life threatening allergies together. That right there might scar them.
Peanuts have 16 different kinds of fungus.
the fungus thrives in an acidic environment and nourishes with ingested sugars. Corn has over 20 different kinds of fungus. Shellfish, which are bottom feeders eating rotting corpses and fecal material are loaded with microforms, which can cause an extreme reaction. Put fungus,(candida is a form which travels around the body and is hard to get rid of), bacteria, yeast, or mold(from cheese) in your body, feed these with sugars, (fermentables) or bread, (yeast, dextrose) dairy products,(lactose, sugars) and your body will become a vessel capable of producing weapons of mass destruction. All of this contributes to cancer. Read Dr. Robert Youngs’ book “The PH Miracle” I guarantee a healthy weight loss of 20 lbs.
“I know the allergy is quite real but is there any science explaining why?”
I have a theory that it’s related to infant formula.
IIRC, you actually decided you were allergic to cheap, copper washed steel pills, not lead pills.
;-)
PS Thank you for your defense of America.
Just say NO to Federal funding and these assinine issues go away.
I personally have an allergy to pork products, and have known about it since the 4th grade. My parents and I had NO expectations that others would have to alter their lives to accomodate my allergy, I just learned to say “no thank you” to many many many offers of food. Now the smell of cooking pork nauseates me, but I am surviving quite well, thank you, though I still miss bacon!
I have a co-worker who is allergic to all members of the allium family. No onions, leeks, garlic, anything like that for him. If any of us have onion on our sandwich/in our lunch, he has to leave the room to prevent a reaction. Most of us try to avoid bringing onion but that is wholly voluntary. He has NEVER asked any of us not to bring the food, just warn him if there is some in our lunch.
I am not up on the latest electronic gadgets, but to be sure, there is something they could do electronically.....perhaps put a camera in the classroom where this kid can do her work at home on the computer yet she would still be particpating in class. Course, that would be a SIMPLE solution!
If I had a kid in that school, I would be pushing for home schooling ONE child rather than create chaos for every one else in the school.
simple human compassion should be at work here. dang, we are a fallen people.
My youngest daughter is allergic to peanuts. My three other kids are not. We have peanut butter in our house as the other kids love it. My allergic daughter will not eat something if she suspects it might have peanuts in it. No big deal, certainly not worth inconveniencing other people over it.
My DH is now 83, and he is allergic to peanuts and tree nuts. When he was a kid, he thought he was a freak as no one else had an allergy like that. He had to take care of himself — and did.
When our daughter had the same allergy, (she is now 53) she also was the only one in school that had it and again — watched out for herself.
A grandson has the same allergy, but now it is getting so common that it is almost accepted.
I’d love to understand why it has come to be so common.
The other day I saw a dog-bomb sniffing dog.
“What are they going to do if they discover they have a sniffing dog allergic to peanuts? “
The best laugh I’ve had all day.
Liberalism = sacrifice of the many to benefit the few. This is liberalism. The one child should be accomodating the others, not the other way around. If one of my kids went to that school, I’d send them to school with peanuts every day just to tick off the “authorities”. Screw them - as a taxpayer, I pay their wages.
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