Ravenwood - 01/05/05 06:45 AM
An Indiana school system is using a segregation policy to ensure that peanut eating kids don't intermingle with non-peanut eaters. But it's not the kids with peanut allergies who are being shoved aside, it's the kids without them.
Savannah Dowling is a typical 8-year-old girl; much of her protein comes from peanut butter sandwiches.School officials have not yet decided if sugar eaters and cheese-eaters will be locked up to protect diabetics and the lactose intolerant.However, if she wants to bring one to Central Indiana's Pleasant View Elementary School, she has to eat it at a special table in the cafeteria to accommodate one first grader with a severe allergy. Soon she'll have to take her lunch to an area the school is calling the "peanut gallery" so the one child with the peanut allergy isn't affected.
So, let me get this straight: the kid with the problem gets to stay in his regular cafeteria spot but the "normal" kid gets segregated? Is this the tail wagging the dog? Totally nuts.
Posted by: kjo at January 5, 2005 4:15 PMI've got a peanut allergy but even I think this is nuts (pardon the pun). It makes much more sense to segregate the few from the many as opposed to vice versa.
My allergy is not that severe but I've still made a few trips to the ER because of it and it's gotten worse as I've gotten older. I have nothing but sympathy for those kids that have it bad.
Posted by: Ralph Gizzip at January 5, 2005 7:47 PM(c) Ravenwood and Associates, 1990 - 2014