Parents Complain About Accommodations for Girl with Peanut Allergy
Special accommodations being provided by a Florida elementary school, for a girl who is suffering from severe peanut allergies, has triggered complaints from the parents of the young girl’s classmates, according to various news reports.
The girl, who is in first grade at Edgewater Public School, is suffering from severe allergy to nuts. In order to accommodate her condition, her classmates have been obliged to rinse their mouths upon arriving at school, and once again after lunch. Restrictions were also being implemented on classroom snacks, and the students are also asked to wash their hands and faces at school, in order to ensure that no nut residue is introduced to the classrooms.
The girl could develop breathing problems due to contact with nuts, but the restrictive measures became the subject of protests among the other parents, who claimed that the measures were a bit overboard. Some parents have staged a protest outside the school, even going as far as calling for the withdrawal of the student from the school. The accommodations, the other parents say, are “taking away from their own children’s learning,” according to a CNN report.
The school initially stood solidly by its decision to accommodate the special needs of the child.
A report on the Los Angeles Times, however, revealed that the school has already eased up the more severe restrictions that they have imposed. Students, for instance, will no longer be required to rinse out their mouths twice daily. They will still, however, need to wash their hands and faces.
