Allergic To Peanuts School Problem

Numerous parents at a public school in Edgewater, Florida, are demanding for a first-grade girl, with life-threatening peanut allergies, to be removed from the classroom and home-schooled, rather than other students having to constantly deal with special rules to safeguard her health.

Spokeswoman for the Volusia County School District, Nancy Wait said "That was one of the suggestions that kept coming forward from parents, to have her home schooled. But we're required by federal law to provide accommodations. That's just not even an option for us".

Wait considers the 6-year-old's peanut allergy to be so serious it should be considered a disability under the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Students in her class are made to wash their hands before entering the classroom in the morning and after lunch and to wash out their mouths to protect the young girl. Wait said a peanut-sniffing dog had to be used to check out the school during a spring break.

A father of two older students at the school, Chris Burr, whose wife has protested at the campus, said a lot of tiny accommodations have added up to frustration for numerous parents. Burr said "If I had a daughter who had a problem, I would not ask everyone else to change their lives to fit my life".

Asthmatics with peanut sensitivity are more likely to develop life threatening reactions. Extreme reaction to peanuts can create anaphylactic shock, which if left untreated, can result in death due to obstruction of the upper or lower airway (bronchospasm), or hypotension and heart failure. This can happen within a very short time of eating, or being exposed to peanuts.

Approximately 11 people per day, in Great Britain alone, are diagnosed with the problem, though the cause of peanut allergy is unknown. According to the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology, as many as 1.5 million people suffer from peanut allergy.

A hundred people die every year from peanut allergy reaction, which is the most common cause of food-related deaths.

Common beliefs are that anaphylaxis can be started off by smelling the odor of peanuts, simply touching peanuts, or close proximity to peanut products. Many of these beliefs have resulted in controversial bans on all peanut products from entire facilities such as medical facilities and schools.

Harvard pediatrician Dr. Michael C. Young notes in his book The Peanut Allergy Answer Book that while such secondary contact can pose a risk to an allergic individual, the occurrence of a reaction is rare and limited to minor symptoms.