From Leigh Ann: Id like to share something that happened to us recently with this group. I enrolled my 2 1/2 year old daughter at a church based pre-school in our area. I asked the director to please make her room peanut free since she has a severe peanut allergy. In this preschool the children eat and spend most of their day in the classroom so there is not a separate lunch area. She told me she would send a letter home to the parents. What she actually did was send a survey home to the entire class asking them to vote on whether or not it would be an inconvenience to make the room peanut free. The choices were A. I have no problem with making the room peanut free. B. I have no problem with it but I would like to know more about peanut butter alternatives. or C. My child will ONLY eat peanut butter and I prefer this room to remain unrestricted. I was appalled this school would put my childs safety to a vote. In a class with 12 students only 2 parents checked that last box. The director still refused to make the room peanut free and sent a letter home stating this before even communicating the results to me. She said since those children would only eat peanut butter they just had no choice. I told them I felt they were choosing the convenience of these two parents over the safety of my child when truthfully those parents DO have a choice and I do not. They disagreed. They did try to offer to have my child eat in the Directors office every day which I felt was ridiculous. The whole point is making sure that peanut butter isnt transferred from little hands all around the classroom. In the end I had to withdraw her from the program due to their unwillingness to accommodate a medical condition. They have offered me a full refund which I appreciate but all the schools in our area are now full since registration takes place in January. Its just very sad. We want to think that we have progressed as a society where food allergies are concerned but there are still people and places who are woefully uneducated about the seriousness of food allergies. My advice to other parents would be to ask about their allergy policy up front at the time of registration and be sure they specifically tell you they will make the room peanut free. I did ask but she gave me a general response like, Oh yes we have all the necessary safeguards in place. Apparently she considers my daughters epi-pen to be that safe guard. I myself hope we never have a reason to use it. Thank you for your time.
Posted on: Thu, 14 Aug 2014 17:36:33 +0000