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Steve Buel's comment on the article:
The whole argument was whether or not to continue to send approximately 10 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches into one school. The school, Beverly Cleary at Hollyrood, has no cafeteria and is a k-1 overcrowded school. All I and the mother were asking was they send in a different sandwich -- nothing more. The first grader has a severe, life-threatening allergy complicated by asthma where even a miniscule amount of peanut butter ingested can easily kill him. And even direct contact with peanut butter may kill him. By sending these sandwiches on a daily basis throughout the school the district sets up a virtual minefield for this small child. Peanut butter sticks to everything. I don't want to hear about the parents need to train him -- they are marvelous at it. I don't want to hear about putting him in a very dangerous environment so he learns to live with it. You don't purposely risk your child's life without reason. And national experts who talk about these situations don't talk about a k-l school which has no cafeteria. The other parents in the school and the teachers have been marvelously cooperative. But the district refuses to make a minimal and easily made adjustment. That is what the argument was about -- not if his face swells up, not if he gets a tummy ache, not if he breaks out in hives, but if we refuse to make a minor change which hugely decreases the threat of death for this child. I say, why not do what is right when the cost is so little? Yes, he will have to learn to navigate the world which won't adjust to his allergy. He will have to adjust. But maybe we should wait until he is a little older than a first grader before we make it hard for him to stay alive and burden his mother with the death of another child.
QuoteAdministrators, including Superintendent Carole Smith, said the district was following recommendations from some national experts who say that designating a school as "nut-free" could lull students into a false sense of security.
Smith said some national experts say it's more dangerous to claim a school is "peanut-free" because you can't actually ensure that.
"The national recommended practice is that you're teaching someone to handle this in an environment that they're in their entire life," Smith said.