I went to my first elementary school PTA meeting in a decade last Friday (yes, I realize that was my own fault), and the meeting was going along just as I'd expect a PTA meeting to go until nearly the end. If it had been a movie, I would have been riveted to my seat, instead, I was just wishing I was anywhere else in the world. It seems somewhere in the time between Michael's school career started and now, there's a new danger on campus, and it's not the usual suspects of test scores, weapons, or drugs. It used to be tucked away quietly in lunches everywhere and is now America's most dangerous killer--it's peanuts.
Earlier this summer, we were faced with this issue in first person when Michael's friend took the same flights as we did to the Jr. Gold tournament in Florida. Southwest is apparently one of the last airlines to serve peanuts, but since we fly Southwest so often, we didn't even realize this. This friend has to board the aircraft with a little piece of paper warning the flight attendents not to serve nuts. In restaurants, he had to ask how and where the food is prepared. He handles it all himself, but it's important to note, his allergy isn't the most severe kind, and this friend is 17, so certainly at this point he can take care of himself. My son really likes those three little peanuts in the bag, so he joked about not taking the same flights as his friend in the future.
The difference here in the Valley is that some of the kids at my daughter's school have the most severe form of the allergy where even the slightest amount of peanut dust will cause a severe reaction and very possibly death. Talking to other parents at bowling this weekend, I found out there are "peanut tables" at some schools. If you bring anything with peanuts, some schools try to control the situation by segregating the kids bringing the nuts. Zoe's school has simply asked that parents not pack anything with peanuts in the lunches. Zoe is apparently so moved by the prospect of potentially hurting someone at school, we can be driving down the street and out of nowhere she'll pipe up from the back seat about how people shouldn't bring peanuts to school so they don't hurt anyone.
At this PTA meeting, there was a mother suggesting there's some movement to labeling the kids with the peanut allergies as disabled so accommodations could be made for them, but that no tables be separated, no child be asked not to bring peanuts, or any other violation of their God-given right to pack peanuts in their lunches. I'm as much about the Constitution as the next person, but am I crazy for wondering why is it that a five-year-old can understand common decency and yet there are the parents that are demanding their "rights"?
Gotta Split,
Angel
Posted by Angel Zobel-Rodriguez at October 16, 2006 10:39 AMInteresting column. It's easy to say that the mothers who are less receptive to the plight of the allergic few are heartless, cold, uncaring beings. However,how far should society go to protect a few individuals? Do rights exist only for the few and never the many? For example, there are some few individuals who are very sensitive to various fragrances/perfumes, etc. As a result, therre is a mass movement to ban all fragrances worn by anyone. There are a few folks who are bothered by cigarette smoke...therefore we ban smoking in open air, stadiums, street corners,etc. The problem of peanut allergy is handled very easily by keeping those individuals away from peanuts, not necessarily by keeping everyone else away from them. I think that the idea of peanut tables and/or separating the allergic ones from the rest of the population isn't so far fetched.What about the local supermarkets and 7/11s....should they stop stocking peanuts on the off chance that some allergic person might wander into the store?
Posted by: Doc at October 26, 2006 01:34 PMTrust me, when I understand both sides. I was horrified at how willingly Zoe was willing to forgo her rights for fear someone *might* get sick (great brainwashing there).
And having to listen to Michael on the plane for 5 hours without his peanuts, I really wish I could have slipped them to him when his friend wasn't looking.
I think the reason I was so uncomfortable with the lawyer mom was first her implication she was speaking on behalf of the legal department and secondly, because she was just so hellbent on her rights, despite the schools' inability to protect the allergic kids.
I truly don't know where I'd stand if I had the kid who only eats PBnJ every day. I talked to a mom finally that has a son that at 9 decided to be a vegetarian, and he is all PBnJ every day. She said she had no idea what she'd feed him if it were her school.
I guess the bottom line for me, is I'm thankful my kids are both healthy and it's not my issue--just an issue for me to ponder.
Posted by: Angel at October 26, 2006 06:59 PM