There have been articles lately about Northwest and Delta serving peanuts on their flights and the outrage this has caused (mostly in MN), articles about the peanut studies being done, and about the prevalence of food allergies and the growing numbers of children being diagnosed. These are the main topics I have seen over the past few weeks. One article I read this morning caught my eye as I was about to leave for work.
The article is from NorwalkPlus.com, a Connecticut news website, and is about a bill being introduced to create uniform guidelines for schools to manage food allergies in schools. It is something parents should be aware of. It is called the Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Management Act of 2009.
You can check out the article at: http://www.norwalkplus.com/nwk/information/nwsnwk/publish/News_1/Dodd-Alexander-Lowey-introduce-bill-to-protect-children-with-food-allergies3249.shtml
I will add more about my thoughts on this later...
Yesterday I was out with another teacher at recess. She told me that a new student was joining her class next week. "He has a peanut allergy. I've never had a student with one of those before," she said to me. I told her I had anaphylactic allergies to many foods, including peanuts (I'm new to this school and many people don't know about my allergies). Then some students were arguing and she had to run over to them, and then it was time to go inside, and I didn't get a chance to talk to her about it anymore. I want to tell her to ask me if she has any questions about food allergies. Many of the teachers seem pretty unaware of allergies. This is a big concern to me! Teachers really need to be educated. As someone in this field, I feel like it is especially important that more education happens for teachers. If they know how to handle food allergies, then they don't have to be worried about having "one of them" in their classroom!
To be continued...
Just wanted to share my experience with Northwest this past August. My Father booked a flight for my entire family to a family function... he sometimes forgets about the severity of his grandsons allergies. Never experiencing a problem before, I called the day before our flight to inform them that my son has a life threatening allergy to all nuts, so could they take the proper precautions... We do not guarantee a nut free flight was their response. I understand you cannot control what other passengers might bring aboard, but surely you make the announcement, and don't serve any nuts when you have a passenger like my son. I was shocked by their ignorance, they would not make any announcement, they would not make sure the food they served would be nut free- and then proceeded to read their policy. I don't think I have ever been so mad in my life. I was on the phone the entire day with supervisor after supervisor, and obviously got nowhere. I wonder if they let people in wheelchairs on their planes? Great policy to have during a recession. My son and husband flew separately on Southwest.
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