With all of the recent concern from parents about Clear Lake Elementary eliminating peanuts from the school because of a student with a deadly airborne allergy, many readers have contacted The Leader with their opinions for and against the change.
But one Oxford resident and employee at the school, named ‘Jane? for anonymity reasons, contacted us with a different angle.
Jane has lived 42 years with a deadly airborne and ingestible allergy to peanuts, tree nuts and eggs and wants people to know children can survive with these allergies without changing the world around them.
Jane was eight-months-old when her allergies were first fully realized.
As a child she remembers going to family gatherings and to friend’s houses and eating things different than everyone else. For instance, if her friends had cookies for an after school snack, she’d have a pretzel.
‘I didn’t know anything different,? she said. ‘It was just told to me ‘You’re allergic to these things, don’t eat them.??
Jane said her brother didn’t eat anything but peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and she frequently sat at the same lunchroom table with other students eating peanut products.
Occasionally, Jane would experience wheezing, but learned at an early age how to take care of herself. Her mother and sisters learned how to inject adrenaline in case of an attack and she learned early on to detect even the slightest amount of peanut on someone’s breath, and made sure to stay far away.
Now, Jane carries an EpiPen in her purse, has one at work and one at home in case of emergencies.
Of course, there were numerous times Jane ended up in the hospital as a child, but she said those experiences helped her learn more about how to deal with her allergies.
‘My mom and dad did not put me in a little bubble,? she said. ‘They didn’t make a big deal like these people are doing at the school. Kids don’t want that. They want to blend on in and not be noticed.?
Jane is also concerned about what will happen when the student with the airborne allergy gets into high school or even college. Her now 18-year-old son went to school in Lake Orion where a student with the same problem was constantly ‘harassed? because of the elimination of peanuts.
‘I don’t think the parents see that they’re trying too hard to make sure their little kids is protected, but they’re hurting them much worse,? she said.
Although her son and daughter do not share the same peanut allergy as her, Jane still allows them to eat peanut butter in the house, permitting they eat it in another room and that they clean up really well when finished.
She said it’s all about adapting to your surroundings. ‘No matter how hard they try, their kid is going to come in contact with peanuts, whether he smells them or touches them,? Jane said.
Even though Jane is against changing the whole school for one child, she does think it would be fair to have the student’s classroom be free of peanut products and have the boy or girl sit in a specified area during the lunch period.
Dr. Kas Buitkus, of the POH Medical Center in Oxford, agreed that ‘segregating? students to a certain area is ‘not a bad thing to do at a young age,? but take care not to ‘ostracize? the student.
Although he hasn’t seen any patients with the rare airborne peanut allergy, he does have patients who are shrimp sensitive and have extreme reactions just walking into a seafood restaurant.
‘It is a concern for some people if there’s a heavy load in the air,? he said. ‘I don’t think you’re going to find a whole lot of documentation of a load of a protein allergins in a cafeteria causing a death.?
In her 42 years of living with these deadly allergies Jane said she wouldn’t have wanted her parents to change the way they raised her. She hopes other parents take the same approach hers did.
‘It was horrible and I never want to do it again, but I learned from it,? she said