Kid exposes nut allergic friend on purpose

[cinderella73]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080419/ap_on_re_us/peanut_attack
Above is the direct link . But I did paste and copy the text below

LEXINGTON, Ky. - An eighth-grader in Kentucky is accused of putting peanut butter cookie crumbs in the lunchbox of a classmate with a severe peanut allergy.
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The allergic student did not eat the cookies Thursday at Morton Middle School in Lexington.

Fayette County schools spokeswoman Lisa Deffendall says the accused student was arrested on a felony wanton endangerment charge. The student will face charges in the juvenile court system.

Deffendall says it was well known that the other student suffered allergies. There was no known history of problems between the two 13-year-olds.

For those allergic to peanuts, trace amounts of peanut oil can cause severe reactions and even death.

~~~~I think it should be considered attempted murder. If u know it could kill someone and you do it anyway shouldnt you be held for that action ?If the kid had brought a gun to school , even if he hadnt fired it he would have been charged with worse. I am not saying charge as a adult. I think they should charge it him as a child. But this is exactly why I homeschool!

 

[SueM in MN]

Wow!
That's scary. It's bad enough to have to worry about accidental exposure, but someone doing it on purpose
I can't remember what show it was, but one of the crime shows included a murder where someone snuck ground peanut dust into the drink of a person they knew had a peanut allergy.

I am going to move this thread to the disABILITIES Community Board, where it will be more on topic.

 

[cinderella73]

Oh shoot.. Thanks ! I thought I had posted it there. Must have not been paying attention. havent had my caffeine yet! lol

 

[SueM in MN]

Oh shoot.. Thanks ! I thought I had posted it there. Must have not been paying attention. havent had my caffeine yet! lol

That's OK.
When I tried to move it here, I actually chose the main disABILITIES Board - which I found out when it told me I could not move it since it was already there.

 

[Selket]

There is some posting about it on the peanut allergy bboard. I think it is good that the police are taking this seriously - it should be taken seriously. I hope something good comes of it in terms of awareness and education.

 

[hildarumpole]

I read that story this morning and it really upset me. 2 of my kids have peanut and tree nut allergies and this is one of my greatest concerns with them in school. DD10 has a kid in her class who frequently tells her he thinks she's faking her allergies and just does it to get attention. She's also been teased by other kids waving food in front of her that they say has peanuts in it. The school is only semi-helpful, but has basically put the responsibility on her to deal with these things. This situation makes me fear that 4th grade teasing will lead to a potentially life threatening situation in later grades. A lot of adults don't get it, so it's no wonder that kids can't fathom the consequences. I don't believe the kid thought he was risking his classmate's life. He probably thought it was funny and maybe the kid would get a rash or sneeze. Nonetheless, the kid in this case should be punished by the school and in the courts as an example to others who might try such a stunt.

This story is why I'm seriously considering homeschooling DS6. He's in half-day kindergarten and hasn't had any problems, but I'm worried about full days with snacks in the classroom and eating lunch in the cafeteria. DD10 has a much stronger sense of self-preservation and awareness about her allergies. When I told her the story, she said if someone ever tried to do something like that to her, she'd make a big scene. DS6 doesn't quite understand his allergies and also loves food so much, he'd willingly eat whatever is put in front of him, no questions asked.

There was a tv series a few years ago called "Freaks & Geeks." They did an episode where the school bully planted a peanut in a PA student's cheese sandwich. The kid would up in the hospital and nearly died. The show was set in the '80s, so no law enforcement was involved, but the bully and his dad went to the hospital to apologize. The bully wasn't as big a jerk after that. It was a good episode about the consequences of bullying behavior. It would be nice if there was more media coverage and education in the schools about food allergies to help people understand the risks.

 

[livndisney]

I read that story this morning and it really upset me. 2 of my kids have peanut and tree nut allergies and this is one of my greatest concerns with them in school. DD10 has a kid in her class who frequently tells her he thinks she's faking her allergies and just does it to get attention. She's also been teased by other kids waving food in front of her that they say has peanuts in it. The school is only semi-helpful, but has basically put the responsibility on her to deal with these things. This situation makes me fear that 4th grade teasing will lead to a potentially life threatening situation in later grades. A lot of adults don't get it, so it's no wonder that kids can't fathom the consequences. I don't believe the kid thought he was risking his classmate's life. He probably thought it was funny and maybe the kid would get a rash or sneeze. Nonetheless, the kid in this case should be punished by the school and in the courts as an example to others who might try such a stunt.

This story is why I'm seriously considering homeschooling DS6. He's in half-day kindergarten and hasn't had any problems, but I'm worried about full days with snacks in the classroom and eating lunch in the cafeteria. DD10 has a much stronger sense of self-preservation and awareness about her allergies. When I told her the story, she said if someone ever tried to do something like that to her, she'd make a big scene. DS6 doesn't quite understand his allergies and also loves food so much, he'd willingly eat whatever is put in front of him, no questions asked.

There was a tv series a few years ago called "Freaks & Geeks." They did an episode where the school bully planted a peanut in a PA student's cheese sandwich. The kid would up in the hospital and nearly died. The show was set in the '80s, so no law enforcement was involved, but the bully and his dad went to the hospital to apologize. The bully wasn't as big a jerk after that. It was a good episode about the consequences of bullying behavior. It would be nice if there was more media coverage and education in the schools about food allergies to help people understand the risks.

You are correct, people don't understand how serious allergies are. I myself have life threatening allergies and have experienced first hand people don't care. My DD has allergies that the school wanted to ignore, I am now homeschooling her. She is like your son and loves food and would not think that someone would try to hurt her.

 

[goofieslonglostsis]

I read that story this morning and it really upset me. 2 of my kids have peanut and tree nut allergies and this is one of my greatest concerns with them in school. DD10 has a kid in her class who frequently tells her he thinks she's faking her allergies and just does it to get attention. She's also been teased by other kids waving food in front of her that they say has peanuts in it. The school is only semi-helpful, but has basically put the responsibility on her to deal with these things. This situation makes me fear that 4th grade teasing will lead to a potentially life threatening situation in later grades. A lot of adults don't get it, so it's no wonder that kids can't fathom the consequences. I don't believe the kid thought he was risking his classmate's life. He probably thought it was funny and maybe the kid would get a rash or sneeze. Nonetheless, the kid in this case should be punished by the school and in the courts as an example to others who might try such a stunt.

This story is why I'm seriously considering homeschooling DS6. He's in half-day kindergarten and hasn't had any problems, but I'm worried about full days with snacks in the classroom and eating lunch in the cafeteria. DD10 has a much stronger sense of self-preservation and awareness about her allergies. When I told her the story, she said if someone ever tried to do something like that to her, she'd make a big scene. DS6 doesn't quite understand his allergies and also loves food so much, he'd willingly eat whatever is put in front of him, no questions asked.

There was a tv series a few years ago called "Freaks & Geeks." They did an episode where the school bully planted a peanut in a PA student's cheese sandwich. The kid would up in the hospital and nearly died. The show was set in the '80s, so no law enforcement was involved, but the bully and his dad went to the hospital to apologize. The bully wasn't as big a jerk after that. It was a good episode about the consequences of bullying behavior. It would be nice if there was more media coverage and education in the schools about food allergies to help people understand the risks.

Hildarumpole, might it be an idea to get the fellow classmates educated by being talked to about this by a professional? It can be a hard subject to understand, but kids tend to pick it up pretty easily if they are informed by somebody 'with authority', like a nurse or doctor. Showing and explaining her epi-pen, hearing from a doc they've seen people die or come very near death because of it tends to make an impression.

Maybe a talk from one of them in front of the class combined with an 'shoppingtrip' in the class room so the kids could experience how many products are a (potential) risk when it comes to peanut allergy? It would probably be the easiest way to theoretically (talk being held) and in practice ('shopping') learn about cross-contemination. (spelling?)

 

[ecki]

Kids are cruel. I don't think even education would help some of them. Just a few days before ABC News ran this article:

Peanut Butter and Deadly Taunts
A Combination of Bullying and Peanut Allergies May Put Some Kids in the ER

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/AllergiesNews/story?id=4659705&page=1

 

[momsavealot]

OMG - I just watched that ABC News article and I'm sick to my stomach! I have 2 kids with the allergy and the thought of them being threatened or bullied by other kids makes me see RED! I always show a video and talk to the class at the beginning of the school year and when they get older, I'm going to switch from the cartoony stuff to the educational video "It only takes one bite" or something like that to scare the pants off these kids. I wish schools would be nut free!

 

[swimlib]

the problem with making schools nut-free is that there are so many things with nut in them. I worked at a school where we couldn't have anything with nuts in it, no popcorn, no latex balloons, no fish, and in some classrooms no egg products. I ate yogurt because when looking at what is left after taking those allergies and choking hazards out, there isn't a lot I could take in.

This is a bad thing, I agree with everyone on that. Just know that even if we remove nut products from schools, kids will still bring them in. I think the bigger problem here is the bullying that now is happening with allergies being a target.

 

[I Love Pluto]

We hear so much today about bullying. We have so many assemblies for our kids at school about bullying. WHY is there so much bullying that didn't seem to exist when I was a kid? I just don't understand it.

What happened to common sense, caring about others, and kindness?

 

[hildarumpole]

Hildarumpole, might it be an idea to get the fellow classmates educated by being talked to about this by a professional? It can be a hard subject to understand, but kids tend to pick it up pretty easily if they are informed by somebody 'with authority', like a nurse or doctor. Showing and explaining her epi-pen, hearing from a doc they've seen people die or come very near death because of it tends to make an impression.

Maybe a talk from one of them in front of the class combined with an 'shoppingtrip' in the class room so the kids could experience how many products are a (potential) risk when it comes to peanut allergy? It would probably be the easiest way to theoretically (talk being held) and in practice ('shopping') learn about cross-contemination. (spelling?)

My daughter's class has been educated about her food allergies. The mother of one of her classmate's is a Pediatric Nurse Practioner. She gives frequent presentations to the class on various health issues, including food allergies. She even shared a story of one of her patients who nearly died at the middle school when the church next door was roasting peanuts for a fundraiser and the aroma got sucked in to the school's ventilation system. She warned me not go anywhere near that church the 3rd Thursday of every month. Unfortunately it only takes one kid who is a jerk for the sake of being a jerk to create a dangerous situation, no matter how much they are warned about the risks.

The bullying does seem to be getting out of hand. I've seen some reporting that kids are less empathetic today and more self-centered. Many of them don't see other people as people. That probably accounts for the scary stuff some of these kids are proudly posting on YouTube. As the child psychologist said in the ABC News piece, kids don't think. It's a physical fact. I'm sure I didn't think very well either at that age, but I never considered doing harm to anyone. We're definitely in troubling times.

 

[Kriii]

This story upsets me on so many levels. No, I'm not allergic to peanuts but have had a serious allergic reaction to meds that caused my throat to swell up and impede breathing before ER visit so I can well imagine the peanut allergic child's reaction to this incident. I personally think things like latex and peanuts should be banned from schools if there is any child at risk there. Most kids can be good about not teasing but believe me (I work in a middle and high school) there are others who will do some unbelievable cruel things no matter what the school does to try and prevent this.

 

[Piper]

Unfortunately, it is not just children. A "friend" of my parents knew that my dad had an allergy to coffee. She decided to serve him a slice of chocolate cake that had a teaspoon of instant coffee in the whole cake. After all, if he didn't know it was in there, it wouldn't hurt him--right? On the way to the ER, she decided that allergies were not just in people's heads.

Some people just cannot imagine anything they don't experience firsthand--and some people are just cruel-----both adults and children.

 

[MousekaMaddi]

our daughter isnt allergic to any foods, but I witnessed an interesting thing this week at her schools book fair. Book fair was in cafeteria and one aide was getting lunchroom ready for lunchtime, she pushed a desk and chair up to the end of every table and washed these desks with soap and water, I asked who was to sit at these "end" desk seats, she said nut allergy kids, I thought that was interesting.