Peanut Butter Sandwiches Banned from Schools

[Fire_on_High]

Sorry, but it's nuttery to cater to a special few and go so far to show them they're "just the same as anyone else" that the world will change just to suit them. What happens when...it doesn't? They'll be so used to being spoiled and catered to, they won't be properly careful since they'll come to expect it all to be done for them.

They're not the "just the same" and putting the onus on everyone else to play a grand game of "Let's Make Believe" is going to backfire. The folks with the problem should be the ones having to make sacrifices.

As it is, it's likely to stir up a sneaky vengeful streak in at least a few, far more than eating in a classroom would. No one likes to have things taken away, and sooner or later some kid will be smart and sociopathic enough to get some revenge.

[siead_lietrathua]

sorry but i dont buy the "cant afford anything else". my parents were pay-to-pay growing up. and half the time our lunches were *gasp* leftovers from the night before!
it wont kill ya to not eat sammiches for lunch, most leftovers are fine cold, even broke this is an easy solution.
i'm sorry but i dont value one persons dietary preferances VS anothers death. i doubt it will be a slippery slope as i havent heard of people with milk or gluten allergies having death-sever reactions from touching a surface that the item was on with the same volume as those with nut allergens.
i see alot of people claiming selfishness by the parents of these kids. i'm sorry but not wanting to die is not being selfish. wanting to consume an optional food at the risk of another human being is.
*headdesk*

[Greenday]

i'm sorry but not wanting to die is not being selfish. wanting to consume an optional food at the risk of another human being is.

Actually, not wanting to die IS selfish.

Let's say I go to school, open up my bag, pull out a PB&J, then proceed to eat it. How the heck did I just endanger someone's life?

[siead_lietrathua]

you didnt. unless you have been informed that your desk-mate is allergic. then you have. if a school has a high-ratio of those allergies in the building, like one kid in every or every other classroom, they may ban it. if a school has a low risk, say one in every 5 or higher classes, they may not. it's up to individual schools.
when i was a kid we had one or two kids in the whole school with nut allergies. now it seems to be every classroom.

and i'm sorry, but if you place the NEED to survive as MORE selfish than the WANT of sandwich then that is messed up.

[Greenday]

Let's say the guy sitting next to me is allergic.

How does me eating a sandwich and somehow managing not to wipe it all over his skin mean I am endangering him?

[AdminAssistant]

I really wish those of you so concerned about nut-sensitive kids were at least half as concerned about the children who are not getting proper nutrition because they live in poverty and go to bed hungry every night.

[Andara Bledin]

The school my oldest nephew goes to has an allergy table; it seems to work perfectly well.

Actually, having a "special" table for kids with allergies separates them and turns them into an "other" class. It makes them inviting targets for bullies, which is why a lot of schools don't segregate the children.

I really wish those of you so concerned about nut-sensitive kids were at least half as concerned about the children who are not getting proper nutrition because they live in poverty and go to bed hungry every night.

Gotta love the, "I don't have a real argument, so I'm going to bring up some other, not genuinely related issue and claim that since you're spending time on this one then you must be ignoring that one because you can't possibly care about both."

^-.-^

[guywithashovel]

Couldn't banning peanut products be an invite for bullies, too? I mean, if we implement a ban, they'll be the kids who "got all peanut products banned from the school." Seems like that could make them bully targets, too.

[AdminAssistant]

Actually, the issues are related, in that they both deal with the responsibility of schools in feeding children regardless of their ability to pay. You want schools to accommodate allergies, when doing so will affect their ability to provide those meals. I mean, the government already makes schools use ammonia-treated 'pink sludge' meat products, because they can't afford anything else. For the schools that don't have cafeterias (some don't), you want parents to give up a cheap, easy, tasty form of protein for more expensive, more perishable alternatives.

Kids with life-threatening allergies are already 'othered'. The rest of the class knows that that one kid is why Mom can't send them to school with a PayDay or a Snickers, or make her awesome peanut butter cookies for the Christmas party. We should all know by now that bullies don't need reasons to bully.

I mean, lots of people are deathly allergic to bee stings. In this situation, isn't it easier to teach the child not to play near the field of flowers, to not poke the hornet's nest, or to spend springtime recess indoors? No, instead the school should wipe out every single bee in a 20-mile radius.

[Rebel]

My impression of an all out ban of peanut products at schools, particularly from this thread, is that children are morons.
It seems to be the popular idea that children would not understand the severity of a peanut allergy, and so we should just make sure there's never any chance of them ever having to find out about it.

When I was a kid, we had someone in our class who was allergic to peanuts. Didn't stop us bring PB sandwiches for lunch at all. Instead, our teacher sat us down one day in class and explained exactly what a peanut allergy was, and what we were expected to do to make sure this child was safe at school.
We never had a problem.

That's actually what my school would do every time a child had a difference at school.
One boy suddenly needed glasses in the 1st grade. The class was sat down and explained why he needed them, and why it wasn't nice to make fun of him.
He never had a problem at school.
Another girl had to wear leg braces to correct an abnormality in her legs. The teacher talked to us about it. She never had a problem.

These days, people talk about all out bans of things that may cause a problem to a couple of children. Because children wouldn't be able to understand how dangerous these things are, and so we must make extreme decisions on their part. Because children are dumb.

I think that instead of banning, that the teachers and parents should talk about problems like this. Talking to children, treating them like they understand, seems to be a thing of the past.

Kids are smarter than you think.

[Andara Bledin]

My impression of an all out ban of peanut products at schools, particularly from this thread, is that children are morons.

That's not what I'm hearing.

What I'm getting is that children are often too inexperience to genuinely understand that what they do has the potential to kill their friends. No amount of "don't do that, it's dangerous" is going to stop a curious kid from being curious; my brother was more than old enough to know, intellectually, that fire was dangerous, but that still didn't stop him from managing to set the house on fire.

^-.-^

[Cats]

I would support an 'allergen-free' table that kids could sit at, supervised by an aide or a teacher (who already have to do lunch duty anyway). That takes care of the safety issue. School parties/field trips would have to be handled on a class-by-class basis. I just think there are ways to guarantee the safety of children without banning foods completely.

This. Wouldn't be too hard to set up. One of my elementary schools had assigned seating at lunch, though it had nothing to do with allergies. It was sort of an inconvenience if some of your friends were in hot lunch and you were cold (the lunchroom was split in half), but hey, it was only like, 20 minutes and you had all of recess to spend together.

Allergies have varying degrees, and not every allergic reaction is necessarily life-threatening. The argument that having peanut butter in the same room as a kid with a nut allergy = AUTOMATIC DEATH is being taken too harshly. That's not to say that there AREN'T kids who have that much of a sensitivity, but some of them only have an issue if they actually consume the product in question.

I think this issue in schools should be on a case-by-case basis. If a child is known to have a severe nut allergy, I have no issue with constituting a ban of some kind. Even if a reaction does occur that was previously unknown to exist (as sucky as that is), it isn't the school's fault because it it could have happened just about anywhere, and even a ban on it in schools wouldn't prevent the possibility of it happening somewhere else.



Maybe I was more "mature" as a child than other kids, I don't know. But by the time of 2nd grade, possibly even first, I was waking myelf up for school, dressing myself, making my own breakfast (or skipping it as I often did), and had to walk myself to the bus stop (which was down a hill and around corners and out of sight of my house). It wasn't because my parents were inattentive or anything, it's simply that they taught me responsibility.

I'm kinda with Rebel on this one, kids are NOT as stupid as they are sometimes taken.

There was one kid in the school who had a medical ID bracelet on. I can't remember what it was for (only that it wasn't an allergy), but if you asked him, he would tell you about it, and as far as I'm aware, he was never picked on or singled out for that reason.

As for kids forgetting their Epi-pens? Why not leave a spare with the school nurse, who should already be aware of the allergy?

[HYHYBT]

Couldn't banning peanut products be an invite for bullies, too? I mean, if we implement a ban, they'll be the kids who "got all peanut products banned from the school." Seems like that could make them bully targets, too.

Either way there's a chance, but I think there's an important difference: the separate table, if it does lead to more bullying (and I think that's a big "if") would pretty much affect anyone who ever sat there. A kid who causes an unpopular policy change, I would expect to have a higher chance of being bullied over it.... but other kids with the same problem who come along once it's already in place would be anonymous.

I mean, the government already makes schools use ammonia-treated 'pink sludge' meat products, because they can't afford anything else.

They don't put ammonia in food. There's a scary, but fictitious, description of how that stuff's made that includes treating it with ammonia, but if there really were ammonia in food you'd know it because the stuff smells horrible. See Snopes for details.

I think that instead of banning, that the teachers and parents should talk about problems like this. Talking to children, treating them like they understand, seems to be a thing of the past.

I think the approach you describe is far more likely to work than the characterization of it as just telling kids "don't do that, it's dangerous" would. And, again, banning something doesn't mean that someone won't sneak it in, especially if they think it would be a good prank.

As for kids forgetting their Epi-pens? Why not leave a spare with the school nurse, who should already be aware of the allergy?

Who has a school nurse these days? At least, one who's actually there all the time in case they're needed?

[Greenday]

My five year old cousin is allergic to nuts. His school just has a separate table for kids with food allergies and it doesn't bother him. And if the kids don't know better, that's the fault of the parents. My five year old cousin, when I took him out to dinner the other night, asked the waitress if the dessert I ordered has nuts. I know it didn't but he didn't and at five years old, he was careful enough to ask. If at five years old my cousin can get this right, older kids can get it right too.

[Seifer]

I really wish those of you so concerned about nut-sensitive kids were at least half as concerned about the children who are not getting proper nutrition because they live in poverty and go to bed hungry every night.

Bwuh?

Obviously childhood hunger is a real issue, and I can't speak for everywhere in the U.S., but here in Florida we have food banks and school programs. Parents can go to several hundred food banks around the state and get all the food they need to feed their families for free. Schools will pass out food trays on Friday afternoons so the kids can have food over the weekend (I've seen this done in one of the poorer areas of our county. The food was good, too - it wasn't cheap muck like some people seem to expect.) Hell, if people really need help, they can go to any Church and ask for it. Churches love to "do God's work" and help those in need, and there are some very giving people who go to Church.

Like I said, I can't speak for everywhere else in the United States, but there are programs out there that try to help needy families.