Mom Demands School Go Peanut-Free For Allergic Child

[MADem]

359. IED, IEP--it's all blowing up in her face, and you knew what I meant.

This woman is suing because nothing the school does is "good enough." She's suing the school because state law doesn't let her kid have his epi-pen (go after the state, not the school), and she's suing the school because she doesn't think the accommodations they have made for the kid are "good enough." She is also calling the PTA a bunch of child killers. She's being an ASSHOLE. She doesn't want compromise or cooperation--she wants a fight and a payday, it would appear. The school is in a position where they cannot respond to her trashing of them in the media, because they are under the "We Don't Talk About Ongoing Litigation" gag rule common in public service.

You are not an immunologist--apparently, though, immunologists say that this brand new protocol, just out of clinical trial and into practice in medical centers around the country, works VERY well for people with SEVERE allergies. It takes a long time, though, so she needs to get cracking. Four months of treatment is a "short course" so if she wants little Nicky to be ready to go for the next year, she needs to start now.

This kid is apparently SOOOOOOOOOO sensitive that "peanut dust" will fuck him up. If one of his classmates, or the school janitor, or one of the teachers, has --at home, for breakfast--peanut flavored crackers, a candy bar, a handful of peanuts, or even a piece of toast from bread made in a factory where peanuts are processed, then those children or school employees could very well bring "peanut dust" into the environment from their homes, on their clothes. Then little Nicky could breathe it in and....DIE!!!!!

Sorry--I don't think this woman's motives are pure. She wants to put the school in a position where they've "agreed" that there will be NO peanuts ever in the school, and then hold them liable when the kid manages to find some peanut dust flying off the scarf of his teacher or in food he shares with some other kid whose mother didn't read the label. So yeah, it's NOT a big deal, because it's not going to happen-- there's no way ANY environment can be truly "peanut free" and anyone who thinks a decree will make is so is the one who isn't thinking clearly.

Let the kid sit at the peanut free table, don't rely on the school to stop the kid from eating food he shouldn't (parental education), don't try and fail to force parents to be obsessive label-readers if that's not their thing, and don't try to hold the school liable for something the kid is old enough to understand how to manage on his own. And get the law changed--call that state legislator that represents Ms. Williams, and get the Michigan law changed so little Nicky can carry his epi-pen. And get Nicky desensitized. THAT will solve the problem once and for all, and Nicky will be grateful for not being treated like a "different" kid for once in his life.

Of course, that ruins the whole Muchausens-By-Proxy thing for folks who like that kind of stuff. And I think Ms. Williams is a fan.