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273 Comments
- punx, on 01/05/2009, -7/+91It's a shame some people have these allergies, but if a child is that allergic to nuts, they don't belong in public school, discommoding other childrens' and families' lives. You do not change an entire school for one child. The parents are selfish to even suggest it. I'm sorry your child has such an allergy, and if you're so scared a stray goddamn peanut, peanut dust in the air, a child who touched a nut and didn't scrub the crap out of their hands will kill your child, KEEP THEM OUT OF SCHOOL. It's amazing just how selfish these people are.
- JamesBondJr, on 01/05/2009, -3/+67It seems like the more you are exposed to dirt and such as a child, the less allergies you will have. Everyone makes too much hype about them.
- 2Deluxe, on 01/05/2009, -3/+64I have had chronic asthma ever since I was a kid... But people are still allowed to smoke on the street, in outdoor eating areas or in their homes. I don't go around demanding EVERYONE STOP SMOKING because of me, I suck it up, make my own precautions and ***** live my life. I don't even remember anyone having peanut allergies at school (I'm 21), what's going on that's making it so prevalent and ***** annoying?
- bag2p, on 01/05/2009, -3/+61Women seem to pretend that they suffer from this affliction quite often.
- maz2331, on 01/05/2009, -4/+55If the kid is so allergic to something that is relatively common, then they are the ones who need to stay away from it. It sucks, but we can't inconvenience everyone to protect a very few fringe cases.
- SuperCujo, on 01/05/2009, -1/+45Their home environment is too clean as a child...
Hypoallergenic pillows, blankets and carpets... Antibacterial soaps and cleaners... Never letting their kids get dirty, fall over or, heaven forbid, cut or scratch themselves.
Let kids be kids. Broken bones can be healed, dirt can be washed off with the hose and let them explore and learn things on their own. Contrary to what the media says, there is not a pedo around every corner.
You will end up with a healthier and less whiny child in later years. - maz2331, on 01/05/2009, -5/+47That kid needs to stay out of that school then.
- Dumbledorito, on 01/05/2009, -3/+43Allergies in kids are a conundrum, both from a practical standpoint as well as a policy one. Clearly, if one individual's participation in something causes undue disruption to where it becomes burdensome, then that individual needs to be addressed. That addressing is usually either "you can't do this" or "the activity needs to be changed to accommodate you."
There are kids out there with really bad food allergies. My wife has taught kids who could literally die from exposure to nuts or glutens. The parents insist on giving their kids a "normal" education, but common things in the environment are now toxins that the school and teacher have to eliminate (and they have to be briefed on how to use an epi-pin). M'self, I've seen cases where I'd give the kid a space-suit or have them homeschooled, since whole buildings have to be allergen-free for them to use them.
But it is hard from a policy standpoint to say that a child should suck up a greater chance of dying to attend school. So the conundrum remains: "Think of the children" vs. "think of my child." - jamwil87, on 01/05/2009, -0/+39Exactly.
I'm allergic to peanuts... I'm not in a position to demand anything from anyone, and I wouldn't want to.
It's my problem and I deal with it.
Anything short of rubbing it in my face, and I couldn't give less of a ***** what you do with your peanuts.
You could juggle 20 peanuts, and I'd probably watch you.. But I'd stand far ***** away because that's what I gotta do. - Chromain, on 01/05/2009, -3/+40I doubt that there was a special protocol in place just in case a stray nut was found on the bus.
Chances are the bus driver saw (or heard a kid mention) the nut, and went "Oh crap, that one kid, the peanut allergies, oh crap, what do I do?". Could it have been there for weeks? Sure. Could a bag of nuts have spilled and slid around on the floor, and this was just the first to get spotted? Just as easily. A few dozen nuts getting stepped on and smashed by bookbags with an allergic kid nearby would be bad news. Bus driver probably just knew "Nuts = dead kid", and didn't want to risk their job just so that no one had a laugh at his expense later for being over reactive.
Plus: "Evacuating" a bus makes it sound much more dramatic than it probably was. Kids got off the bus. We "evacuate" our car every time we arrive at our destination.
Allergies suck, nut allergies especially so. As long as there was no armor clad peanut cleanup crew called out and the bus ride continued once they'd made sure no nuts were lingering, I'd say the bus driver (or whoever called for the kids to hop off the bus) did the right thing. As for the rest of the stories? Again, nut allergies friggin' suck.
All that said, 5 points to this article for using the phrase "nut dust". - SeaMowse, on 01/05/2009, -4/+38I have a friend who's daughter is allergic to peanuts. The entire school is peanut free because of her. She can become violently ill just by somebody having a peanut butter sandwich in their lunch box. It boggles my mind - things weren't like that when I was in school. Makes me wonder what's going on nowadays - even autism is becoming common nowadays.
- Richvideo, on 01/05/2009, -1/+34Overprotective parents may be the cause in many cases, as well as hyper hygienic ones.
Our great grandparents had no food fears and the kids ate what they were given. No
Purell Hand Sanitizer in every bathroom.Dirt is good :)
http://www.news-medical.net/?id=44346
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/women_shealth/37 ...
http://www.bio-medicine.org/medicine-news/Asthma-m ...
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-509603/H ... - rufishinjr, on 01/05/2009, -5/+38My PRIVATE COLLEGE is now nut-free because of ONE PERSON. The cafeteria, an establishment where peanut butter was one of about three viable options, has now replaced it's spot in the sandwich bar with even more ***** tuna fish.
- punx, on 01/05/2009, -3/+35Fair to whom? There are more than 75 million children enrolled in school in this country. Approximately 6% of those children have food related allergies. That includes ALL food related allergies. Now let's assume half (which I think is generous) of those allergies are nut related, that means approximately a bit over 2 million children have these allergies. Sounds like a lot, right? Now subtract that from the entire school population...73 million. Now you're asking 73 million kids to have to follow incredibly stringent rules for the benefit of 2 million. Seems to me that the parents asking for this are the ones who aren't being fair. If your child is in danger of just breathing in peanut dust, how responsible is the parent who sends their child to a school where a child may have consumed a peanut butter sandwich for breakfast, and touched the child with peanut allergies? The fact is that most people are fine with putting everyone else out, but not themselves.
- DigitalGuy, on 01/05/2009, -11/+42Either food allergies are ***** or something has really changed in the last 15-20 years. There was no such thing as dying from a peanut when I went to school. I've never believed in food allergies as a whole. And as cold as this sounds, if you're going to die from exposure to a peanut, go ahead and die....your genes are obviously ***** beyond any hope.
- VirtualCtor, on 01/05/2009, -0/+30Your sister needs to get a Medic-Alert bracelet (or equivalent) right away! If she is that allergic, she could be easily killed by a misdiagnosis. In her case, it would have told the emergency room personnel up front that she has a nut allergy, and they wouldn't have needed to ask. Next time your brother-in-law might not be there.
- Skishy101, on 01/05/2009, -4/+34I feel sorry for the kids at nut free schools. Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches are all part of the school experience.
- Exbzurq, on 01/05/2009, -0/+28I blame the rainbows in our sprinklers.
- ObamaYouth, on 01/05/2009, -2/+28You never heard about peanut allergy in poor countries.
- HookmasterCH47, on 01/05/2009, -2/+27Yet peanuts don't get their own color coded alert system...
- Akaziel, on 01/05/2009, -1/+26Yeah I agree with you. I was a kid in the 80s and you never heard of this. Never. What is going on nowadays? Is the allergy becoming more prevalent? Is our knowledge of the allergy becoming more defined? Or is it just a modern sense of paranoia?
- doofusoftheday, on 01/05/2009, -2/+25I saw this article a short while ago and they left off some other statistics. "About 3.3 million Americans are allergic to nuts, and even more - 6.9 million - are allergic to seafood." Christakis says. So maybe your college should ban tuna fish instead? All so ridiculous.
- MelloCheddar, on 01/05/2009, -2/+25That reminds me of Chris Rock...heheh. "We got so much food in America, we're allergic to food. Allergic to food. Hungry people ain't allergic to **it. Do you think anyone in Rwanda is lactose intolerant?"
- Elbryan233, on 01/05/2009, -3/+26Meanwhile, you're ruining every other kid's education by forcing the faculty to take special care of your child. A kid in a wheelchair doesn't need the bus emptied out because there was a nut on the floor. People like you are the reason that teaching costs have skyrocketed. Sorry your kid lost the genetic freak lottery and now you think you're entitled to ***** up as many kids' educations as you want because you'd rather the school system take your kid off your hands for a while instead of dealing with the fact that your kid is not normal.
- spyd3rweb, on 01/05/2009, -12/+35I say let the people with peanut allergies die. Evolution in action.
- morphboy23, on 01/05/2009, -4/+27Ugh I hate all of this BS. It's ridiculous that in many schools, kids can't even bring peanut butter & jelly sandwiches for lunch. PEANUT BUTTER AND ***** JELLY SANDWICHES! What lunch was more common in schools than this? A lot of schools forbid any kind of treat being brought in for a child's birthday now, which was never the case before. Munchkins from Dunkin Donuts? Not any more. Oh and hey, everybody remember Valentine's Day? I know most of us don't want to because we never got any love letters or anything like that; well I've been hearing of a lot of schools forcing kids to write cards to *everyone* in the class, sometimes even the same message in all of them. How does this teach kids anything about life; about disappointment, reward, surprise, and dealing with all of that? It's like the "everybody wins in gym class" scenario.
I get so angry when I think about how overprotected everyone is now. If your kid has an allergy, either home school them, or you make sure they understand their condition and how to deal with it on their own. Tell the teacher and warn the nurse, but don't force to whole school to conform to your child's problem. That's like taking in immigrants and having the country learn *their* language instead of the other way around. I'm not a parent, and I know if my child had a problem I'd want to protect them no doubt, but there are other ways to deal with these things. I would never have the many change for the one. Kids these days are being robbed of so many things that IMO they need to experience in school. Yes PB&J is one of them 8-) - StingingNettle, on 01/05/2009, -16/+38People do die more from peanut alergies than they do from terrorism.
- Dacvak, on 01/05/2009, -1/+22Did you hear that whizzing sound? Yeah, that was the joke flying over your head.
- Nauree, on 01/05/2009, -5/+26I'm allergic to stupidity. Where is my mass evacuation and decontamination efforts? Fing noobs.
- rolf, on 01/05/2009, -0/+21When I was in school, all I was allergic to was homework.
- Nintendesert, on 01/05/2009, -2/+22I would have gone on a rampage if I couldn't have a peanut butter and jelly sandwich at lunch!
- Barackalypse, on 01/05/2009, -2/+22I wonder what authority a public school actually has to regulate what legal substances the children in it can consume. I also wonder, in a world where you ban a certain item because it has potential to harm a few kids, where you draw the line. What if you've got a child with wool allergies, do you ban wool sweaters, jackets, mittens and socks?
- ruarctb, on 01/05/2009, -1/+21A closer parallel would be making the other kids not walk cause one can't.
- kanabiis, on 01/05/2009, -3/+22Modern medicine is actually slowing human evolution. People with this allergy would have died 200 years ago, and they would have died completely ignorant of the fact that it was a peanut that killed them, since food allergies was a completely foreign concept.
- punx, on 01/05/2009, -9/+28FTA: "...about 150 from allergy-related causes each year". So, taking that, it would take 20 years of peanut allergy deaths to equal just the deaths from 9/11. Now I want you to add the deaths from other terrorist attacks over the years, take your head out of your ass, and think how stupid the statement you just made is. Ignorance isn't an admirable quality, no matter what you may think.
- GameGrl, on 01/05/2009, -0/+18I have 6 children. 3 of them are in different schools due to their age. My younger one in elementary school has a nut free and a fish free table.My 2 older ones in middle school have neither of these. Now, there is a child in my younger sons class with a nut allergy. He knows the precautions he must take to keep himself safe from an allergic reaction, as he is highly allergic. He has been taught that he must not trade food with his friends or to caution his friends if he thinks they may have something with nuts in it. I think if they were to ban the entire school from nuts alot of people would have a hard time feeding their kids. Some kids will only eat peanut butter, or mom makes brownies with grandma's recipe which calls for nuts and sends them as a special treat, etc. Or what about those days in the spring time when kids go on field trips and are told not to pack perishable foods. What do you make for child at that point.
I think education on the part of the child with the allergy. Keep them as normal as possible. When they grow up they are not going to be able to get a job and ban the allergy causing food from the work place. That's just unreasonable. Education is the key here. - scb0825, on 01/05/2009, -1/+19We all must watch out for nut dust in the air, as it could kill you.
- kanabiis, on 01/05/2009, -7/+24News flash people, 10 out of 10 people die nobody is born with a guarantee of a long life. To quote Carlin, the kid who eats too many marbles doesn't grow up to have kids of his own. If you have a deadly allergy to a common substance, I hate to break it to you, but you're probably going to die an early death, all the better for the human race.
- tgc1, on 01/05/2009, -0/+17Well i'm glad at least YOU have the consideration for others. I'm sorry to hear you have that allergy.
- TheHim, on 01/05/2009, -1/+18SuperCujo speaks the truth. As a european visiting the states, i constantly had the smell of disinfectant in my nose. It seems to be on everything, especially in hotels.
I played in the dirt a lot as a kid and to this day have no allergy what so ever. - Khast, on 01/05/2009, -4/+20Heh, I don't know, the peanut warning labels have also gotten quite ridiculous too... Recess Peanut butter cups had the warning label on them. "Warning: This product may contain peanuts." "Warning : This product was processed in conditions which the product may have come into contact with peanuts." (On something which the product said it had peanuts in it..... I don't know about you, but if you are allergic to peanuts, I wouldn't advise you eating M&M Peanut, Recess Peanut Butter Cups, Butterfinger, ect....if you even have to read the warning label to see if there is peanuts inside............)
- Matri, on 01/05/2009, -1/+17Wheelchair ramps don't inconvenience the other students. The stairs aren't removed.
- Gareth321, on 01/05/2009, -4/+20If the children have such severe reactions then letting them loose in a public school is irresponsible until they're of the age they can understand the consequences of ingesting the dangerous food. Children are generally oblivious and sooner or later a child will have a peanut butter sandwich at school [or peanut based food], exposing your children to possible death. That's not an acceptable risk.
I wouldn't stop wearing deodorant because a work colleague had allergies. I wouldn't stop using my shampoo and I wouldn't stop eating peanut butter sandwiches either. If someone is allergic to common substances it is their unfortunate burden to bare. I get severe hayfever and I deal with it accordingly. I don't request everyone in my life avoid touching or being near flowers. - doomedwer, on 01/05/2009, -4/+19This problem is akin to all the PC ***** that's been going on in this country for the past 20 years or so. One person has a "problem" with something and everyone else is inconvenienced.
If a kid is allergic to peanuts, then its his/her responsibility to avoid them. Its not the school's job to ban them. What ever happened to "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few". - qwertydvorak, on 01/05/2009, -1/+16i agree completely. maybe the parents should teach the allergic kid about epipen.
- monsieurgrand02, on 01/05/2009, -2/+17You would be quite surprised by what most parents would request from the school because of their child's food allergy. It has become very selfish and ridiculous in most cases. It is truly a "Think of the children" vs. "think of my child."
You would not be denying a child their education because a school refuses to make such drastic changes. I know of school who's principal refused to make the school a peanut-free school because in most cases, the parents can only afford to make their children a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Why should we force hundreds of families to find something else to feed their kids just so one or two students can be accommodated? Other precautions have been taken to prevent exposure, but some of the things these parents request, and in some cases demand, is down right ridiculous. - punx, on 01/05/2009, -1/+16Well leif, tough *****. I never claimed to be either.
- secrity, on 01/05/2009, -2/+17People who wear contacts or glasses do not demand that other people change their diet.
- BossKey, on 01/05/2009, -1/+15If you leave out the outliers (standard statistical procedure), the allergy deaths are higher. Terrorism deaths excluding 2001 are just about nonexistent.
- Gareth321, on 01/05/2009, -1/+15I don't even thing punx is being harsh. He's being realistic. If the entire schooling system had to stop, drop and roll each time a child had an issue, no one would get any learning done. Where does one draw the line? Children may not use soap or shampoo anymore because some children get a dermatitis reaction to the chemicals? Pets banned at home due to the possibility of fur still being on clothes and then causing allergic reactions at school?
Peanuts are common enough that requiring sequestration is a little absurd but a lot selfish. -
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