Parents go nuts over peanut ban Many threaten student strikes in kindergarten allergy debate Posted: September 10, 2003 1:00 a.m. Eastern © 2003 WorldNetDaily.com An elementary school’s reaction to one student’s allergy to peanuts has parents complaining about "Nazi-like" peanut police searching their children’s backpacks. Angry parents packed a parent-teacher meeting last night at Valle Verde Elementary School in Walnut Creek, Calif., to protest the school’s new "peanut reduction policy." Under the policy, kindergarten classrooms and a special playground area have been designated "peanut- and tree nut-free zones." Students and visitors are required to wash their hands. Backpacks and lunch boxes are searched and peanut products are confiscated. The policy is in response to lobbying by parent Leora Cope, whose 5-year-old son’s allergy is so severe that even peanut butter residue left on the playground monkey bars could send him into anaphylactic shock. Cope’s family demanded the Mt. Diablo school district accommodate their son under the Americans with Disabilities Act and the federal regulation known as Section 504. The Copes had wanted peanuts banned from the entire school campus. The reduction policy was adopted as a compromise. The district also hired a health aide to spend 30 hours a week training staff members in the use of an Epipen, an adrenaline injector that assists people who go into anaphylactic shock. "Everyone’s going to do the best they can to keep him safe, as they would any child," district spokeswoman Sue Berg told the Contra Costa Times, pointing out that Valle Verde’s policy is less restrictive than others. "There are whole schools that have declared themselves peanut-free." Full Story . . .

Wish schools would show that much concern about CAH, don’t you.