How far should schools go to accommodate the health needs of one student? (regular, parties)
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my son was traveling with his football team a couple years ago. i always packed him high protien snacks for after the game. one time he was eating trail mix and offered some to the boys around him. at about the time one of the boys face started turning red my son asked what was wrong. the kid had never heard of or had trail mix before because he was allergic to peanuts, so it didnt occur to him to say no thank you. my son didnt know he was allergic. fortunately it all turned out ok, and shortly after the school became nut free.
point is- my son is in high school. the boy had become complacent to his own allergy because he hadnt been in an environment that had nuts in it for a long time. my son didnt know he was allergic, the other boy was new to the school, they hadnt grown up together.
we have had other friends with children who are allergic to peanuts. it made us more aware. we make sure whenever we make something for a classroom or bake sale or meeting we always ask if anyone is allergic to anything or mention that it contains nuts, milk etc... we had one boy who every time it was time for a meal or snack he would either go home or go without. we knew he had a peanut allergy and made every attempt to accomodate that, but his parents had just taught him it is better to go without than to take a chance.
some parents want the world to change and adapt for their child, some parents want their child to learn how to live in the world as it is.
There was no mention of a dog or mouthwash in the article, peppermint.
"To protect the girl, students in her class at Edgewater Elementary School are required to wash their hands before entering the classroom in the morning and after lunch, and rinse out their mouths, Wait said, and a peanut-sniffing dog checked out the school during last week's spring break."
You're correct about the mouthwash. I don't see what good water alone would do, but I'm no allergist.
EDIT: I found another article out yesterday - http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/wire/sns-bc-us--nutallergy-school,0,3303693.story (broken link) - saying they've dropped the water rinsing bit.
"To protect the girl, students in her class at Edgewater Elementary School are required to wash their hands before entering the classroom in the morning and after lunch, and rinse out their mouths, Wait said, and a peanut-sniffing dog checked out the school during last week's spring break."
You're correct about the mouthwash. I don't see what good water alone would do, but I'm no allergist.
EDIT: I found another article out yesterday - Peanut protest: School drops mandatory mouth-rinsing used to protect pupil with nut allergy - latimes.com (http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/wire/sns-bc-us--nutallergy-school,0,3303693.story - broken link) - saying they've dropped the water rinsing bit.
I was wrong, peppermint, and you were right. Missed that dog when I read the article.
The school is required to provide an affective education for all the kids. I feel that the school is an extremely unsafe place for this child and the parents should seek an alternative way. Because I am a parent of a special needs child I have known some children who received in home schooling and the school system provided it. Yes, sometimes in the case of a long term illness or condition education can be brought to them. What is wrong with that? I think this child's life is put in danger everyday by sending her to school and it is interfering with the education of the rest. I feel for these parents, but I don't think they are being realistic.
Quote:
Originally Posted by mommax3plus2
my son was traveling with his football team a couple years ago. i always packed him high protien snacks for after the game. one time he was eating trail mix and offered some to the boys around him. at about the time one of the boys face started turning red my son asked what was wrong. the kid had never heard of or had trail mix before because he was allergic to peanuts, so it didnt occur to him to say no thank you. my son didnt know he was allergic. fortunately it all turned out ok, and shortly after the school became nut free.
point is- my son is in high school. the boy had become complacent to his own allergy because he hadnt been in an environment that had nuts in it for a long time. my son didnt know he was allergic, the other boy was new to the school, they hadnt grown up together.
we have had other friends with children who are allergic to peanuts. it made us more aware. we make sure whenever we make something for a classroom or bake sale or meeting we always ask if anyone is allergic to anything or mention that it contains nuts, milk etc... we had one boy who every time it was time for a meal or snack he would either go home or go without. we knew he had a peanut allergy and made every attempt to accomodate that, but his parents had just taught him it is better to go without than to take a chance.
some parents want the world to change and adapt for their child, some parents want their child to learn how to live in the world as it is.
The first bolded. While I don't necessarily agree with the whole thing the reality in today's schools are, due to various federal laws passed over the last three or four decades, that schools are required (note the word required) to make accomodations to educate all students, including this student who no doubt has a 504 Plan for allergies. This would detail the established allergies and the medications, treatments (these would be from a Dr.) and accomodations to be implemented. Those would be developed by the school in concert with the parents.
A note on 504 Plans: I have 9 students in one class whose Plans require they sit in the front seat of the row for various reasons (eyesight, hearing, ADD and 4 for behavior management). I only have 6 rows of seats. This includes the blind student. One student is required to have a minimum 6 feet clearance on all sides from other students. Has a "touching" problem. These are 9th graders. Smallest classroom in the building, 35 students and an aide for the blind student.
The second bold: the trail mix situation happened to my oldest daughter on a field trip in 5th grade. The VP that went along got her some Benadryl and all was well.
Handwashing is basic good hygiene and in elementary school we used to wash our hands after each break -I mean kids that age get into all sorts!
Not sure how effective mouth rinsing is, and believe that the levels of the chemical that can induce an allergy would be reduced to below "trigger" levels after about an hour of eating PB anyway.
Would it be more effective/acceptable to ask the classmates parents not to give PB in sandwiches?
As regards homeschooling, not everyone has the ability or time to do that.
My brother was and is very sensitive to peanut allergies, so I am very attuned to the school being attuned to various food and other allergies. I think it's great that schools are better about these things today than when my brother and I were growing up.
My daughter's school has a peanut-free lunch table outside. So I think it's pretty easy to make accommodations without touching off a big deal over it. I'm pretty disappointed in the tone of some of the posters on the thread who seem to think the tyranny of the majority rules.
I apologize if this sounds insensitive, but I really think if a child is plagued with something which prevents him/her from being safe in a public environment, then the parents should not be putting the child INTO that environment in the first place. The kid in question is so allergic he can't even breathe in peanut fumes...so every kid should refrain from eating peanut butter? What if they don't? What if a kid at school hates his guts and intentionally breathes peanut breath into his face? Should the school provide a bodyguard for him, too, and cut yet more arts programs in order to accomadate his allergy? No. The parents should be keeping THEIR child safe by keeping him in controlled environments if the allergy is that severe and that dangerous.
I find it amusing that fifty years ago there was no such thing as peanut allergies. You never heard of anyone dropping dead from sniffing someone's peanut breath.
I'm all for reasonable accommodations. I don't have a problem with banning peanut containing products in and of itself. My concern is when does reasonable become outrageous? If we start adding more precautions, when does it stop? Washing the childrens' hands, inconvenient, but I wouldn't complain. Add in rinsing out mouths after meals, I'd be requesting my child to be put into a different class. Now add peanut sniffing dogs, sorry, that's outrageous.
Are we going to do this for everything that causes a reaction? Strawberries, shellfish, pollen?
For extreme cases like this, don't schools districts still use their own homeschooling, where there are specific teachers in the school district that come to the child's home to teach the subjects? It doesn't cost the parent anything. I knew several children who used this service due to being immunocompromised from chemo, steroids, and one case of SCID.
I saw this news story on t.v. Although I feel empathy for the child with the allergy, I don't think it's right to impose out of the ordinary practices on the fellow classmates. My understanding of the story was that just her classmates were subject to the special extra cleansing, that shows that this is not a normal school practice. It is unfortunate that the child has such a severe and possibly fatal allergy, but there are no guarantees even with all the preventive cleansing that she wouldn't be exposed. If that were my child I wouldn't take the chance, I would homeschool them and get them involved in social activities where they can be closely supervised and maybe even with children that have the same allergy. Just my thoughts on the matter.
My brother was and is very sensitive to peanut allergies, so I am very attuned to the school being attuned to various food and other allergies. I think it's great that schools are better about these things today than when my brother and I were growing up.
My daughter's school has a peanut-free lunch table outside. So I think it's pretty easy to make accommodations without touching off a big deal over it. I'm pretty disappointed in the tone of some of the posters on the thread who seem to think the tyranny of the majority rules.
I agree, but also think it would be good to know just how sensitive to peanuts the child is, and how effective the mouthrinsing.
Personally I wouldn't have a problem with my child being asked to rinse his mouth after lunch, or being asked not to include foodstuffs that are known to contain peanuts in a lunch box.
I don't think it does any harm for kids to understand that sometimes in life you have to help those who are less fortunate than you.
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