:sigh:
Completely banning nuts or other foods is not recommended as it is 1) not possible to control what other people bring onto the school grounds, and 2) does not provide the allergic student with an environment where he/she can safely learn to navigate a world containing nuts. When a ban is instituted, parents feel their child will not be exposed to allergens. A ban can create a false sense of security (“Banning allergies from school”, 2012).
Seriously??
Are they STILL misusing and abusing FAAN/AMF's quote made back a decade ago??
Maybe the
stupid parents actually think that...
And really... GOOD GRIEF, already?? Didn't the hearing officer pretty much debunk this on in
Mystic Valley?? I thought so.
I did like that they now acknowledge that federal law has something to say on the subject of management...
Federal laws including the American Disabilities Act, Individual with Disabilities Education Act, and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 protect the legal rights of students with allergies along with the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) which became law January 2011. These laws protect students’ individual rights as well as direct schools to develop voluntary guidelines on food allergy management while they prohibit preempting state laws (FMSA, 2010).
But, as usual... they get it wrong, wrong, wrong when it comes to interpretation of what federal law MEANS here. It can, too, trump state law if an individual child's needs demand that it do so.
NASN has consistently ticked me off over the past ten years, and this document is a shining (glaring?) example of why. In the one instance, they make statements of OPINION (as in the first quote above) with
zero evidence to support those statements, and then later on make stinkers like this gem:
Entering school or changes in the school environment are stressful events, and many parents view these events as opportunities that increase their child’s chance of exposure to allergens (Roy & Roberts, 2011).
Uhhhh... NO. We don't "view" them that way-- they
are that way. Evidence backs that up. Disruptions in routine and a lack of clear expectations and communication = disaster. Period. Several studies have said so.