Despite protests by angry parents, a school in Florida is standing behind its decision to implement new regulations to protect a first grade student suffering from a severe peanut allergy.
Students at Edgewater Elementary are required to wash their hands and rinse their mouths out before entering the classroom each morning and after lunch. Teachers, who monitor the daily rinsing, must also ensure that desks are being continually wiped down with Clorox wipes. The school has banned all peanut products, eliminated snacks in the classroom and prevented outside food at holiday parties. And last week a peanut-sniffing dog was brought into the school.
District spokeswoman Nancy Wait of Volusia County Schools said the school is legally obligated to take these safety precautions because of the Federal Disabilities Act.
“It would be the same thing as putting a handicap ramp for a student that is physically disabled. The only difference with this is that is affects other students,” she told FoxNews.com.
But some parents are saying it is taking away from their children’s learning time.
“On average, it’s probably taking a good 30 minutes out of the day. That’s my child’s education. Thirty minutes could be a while subject,” Carrie Starkey told FoxNews.com.
On Thursday she and other parents protested outside the school, picketing with signs that said, “Our Kids Have Rights Too.”
Experts say the school may have gone too far and that there are easier ways to protect the child.
“I have never seen anything like this,” said allergist Dr. Scott Fischer with the Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Network or FAAN, an organization that monitors food national food allergy issues. “There are many guidelines on how to manage food allergies in schools… things like no food sharing. There are plenty of relatively simple things the school could put in place that aren’t burdensome,” said Fischer.
But David Bailey, the father of girl with life threatening food allergy, says that if his daughter even smells peanuts, her reaction could be fatal. “We’ve fought very hard to put certain things in place… to keep her alive… in school,” he told MyFoxOrlando. “She’s already a cast-out. She can’t do things that most kids can do.”
While the school’s actions may seem drastic and invasive the school says it must protect the health of the student.
“It may seem like an inconvenience but this student registered her disability at the beginning of the school year and we have to do these things to give her a safe learning environment,” said Wait. Since the protest was held last week, parents will be looking for some sort of compromise from the school administration.
“We understand that they need to protect this girl, but these measures are just extreme. Procedures need to be set in place, but not procedures that will take away from our children’s education,” said Starkey.
(Source: Fox News)
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3 Responses
Does not the Torah tell us that if you save a single life, it is equivalent to saving the world? So the authorities at Edgewater Elementary School have done the Torahic equivalent of building a really, really strong nuclear reactor that can withstand an enormous earthquake.
the school where i work has a no NUT policy, not just no peanuts. (i know peanuts arent nuts….) they are very strict with outside food, and there is also a no food-sharing policy.
i think its great that the parents are doing their job to protect their daughter, but they need to give her some space and also be fair to the other kids.
having the kids do things like cleaning their hands and wiping down their desks after eating should ALWAYS be done, regardless of whether or not there are kids with allergies- a childs work environment should always be clean. im not sure how the things involved are taking away learning time from the kids, but perhaps im missing something.
also, one thing i dont understand. if she has a severe allergy to peanuts, why does that mean she cant do things that other kids can? an allergy should not stop her, and THAT should not be a reason for her to be an out-cast.
seems to me like theres more to the story….what ELSE are they ALREADY doing, and what are they PREVENTING this little girl from doing in order to keep her safe?
It sounds like the school board didn’t bother to talk to a lawyer familiar with what the law requires, and acted with excessive caution and a deficit of intelligence. They could probably offer to support home schooling for the child if her allergy is such that the entire school building requires such expensive efforts (anyone in the building have a peanut butter sandwich would cause death even in a different room???).