Peanuts Are Not a Nut!

I know that people can suffer with allergies of all kinds - food, pollen, perfume, medication, soap, etc.. I am one of those people who have pollen allergies, medication allergies, soap allergies, and perfume allergies. So, I am not unsympathetic to others who share the same fate. However, something at my granddaughter’s elementary school just seems a little like overkill.

Her school has an enrollment of almost 600 children. They are allowed to bring a snack to school that they can eat in the middle of the day between breakfast and lunch or between lunch and dismissal. The only things they really don’t want are very sticky, gooey, or spillable things.

One day, my granddaughter came home from school with a note that said all children would no longer be able to bring nuts of any kind, peanut butter sandwiches, or anything that was made with nuts. Also, there were going to be “Peanut Free Zone” tables set aside in the cafeteria. According to the note, there were “children” at school with serious peanut allergies and so they felt like this was a proper response to the situation - no pecans, walnuts, hazelnuts, Brazil nuts, macadamia nuts or even granola bars that had nuts in them. I suppose no one at this school had ever heard that peanuts are not really nuts. They are legumes.

Now, my take is this. I can understand if some child gave the peanut allergic child a snack that had peanuts in it without permission. Or, if, say, they held the child down and rubbed peanut butter all over his face. Shucks, maybe even forced him to chug a peanut butter milk shake, if there really was such a thing. But, when I questioned the teacher about this, she said that even if someone had eaten a peanut and then went to the library and touched a book, then a PAC (peanut allergic child) touched the same book, he would go into anaphylactic shock. OR, if someone were eating a snack that had peanuts in it, and a PAC walked past the window and somehow, the peanut polluted the air said PAC was breathing, he would go into anaphylactic shock. Really???

So from that day forward, all 599 of the other children in the school could not have any type of snack that contained any kind of nut or anything that even vaguely resembled a peanut. I suppose a plastic Mr. Peanut figure might have been OK, but maybe the site of it would have sent the PAC into, yes, you guessed it - ANAPHYLACTIC SHOCK. Isn’t that what EpiPens are for?

So, I figured this must be a real problem and there were more of these PACs than I had thought. Out of 600 children, surely there must be, oh let’s say, 10%, which would be 60 kids. Or, maybe there were more, since the solution to this widespread problem was so thorough. I didn’t think any more about it, but the following year, I noticed that there were no more Peanut Free Zone tables in the cafeteria. A note came home from my granddaughter’s teacher with a list of acceptable snacks, and right there on the list was “nuts”. I asked my daughter about it and she said that they could now bring nuts to school. I asked my granddaughter about it and she said that the PAC (yes, there was only one child with a problem) had left her school and had gone to a different one. I assume he went to a Peanut Free Zone school in another galaxy. The entire school and the households of 599 children were turned upside down for one child.

Here’s what is so stupid. First of all, if the PAC is that allergic, then he should be kept home and home schooled. The entire world cannot stop for one child. What happens if he goes to the movies, the mall, the circus, or just outside to look at the sky! Second, the parents of the PAC are totally wrong in expecting EVERYONE else to make exceptions for their child and make sure he is safe. They need to be teaching him what is and what is not safe for him to eat and that he is responsible for keeping himself safe. And third, I firmly believe that there are not really that many kids with peanut allergies, or ADD, or ADHD, or any of the other diseases, syndromes, or nice little categories that you can assign to your child other than the fact that he’s a kid that needs some parenting and boundaries. There, I am now stepping off of my soapbox, which, by the way, had peanuts packed in it.