A recent event in a Wenatchee, Washington high school has raised the bar for school bullying to a truly frightening level. The stories of bullying are not new – taunting, hazing, and tormenting happens to our kids every day in school and although counselors are on the grounds and discipline levels in many schools have been raised to almost zero-tolerance levels for repeat offenders, bullying continues to escalate.
The difference between these recent incidents in Washington is that unlike taunting or knocking books out of kids’ arms, the weapon of choice was peanut butter. The bullies in question were well aware of their target’s severe allergy to peanuts and chose this allergen deliberately to smear on the young man’s face.
As noted in the MSNBC article covering the attack, “Nearly 4 percent of children younger than 18 in the United States have food allergies, a figure that jumped 18 percent from 1997 to 2007. Peanut allergies rose from .4 percent of kids in 1997 to 1.4 percent in 2008, according to a previous study by Sicherer.”
This means that peanuts and peanut butter can cause allergic reactions in those people affected. According to the Mayo Clinic, symptoms of peanut allergies include:
Skin reactions such as hives, redness or swelling
Itching or tingling in or around the mouth and throat
Digestive problems such as diarrhea, stomach cramps, nausea or vomiting
Tightening of the chest
Shortness of breath or wheezing
Runny or stuffy nose
Many people with peanut allergies suffer Anaphylaxis, a severe allergic reaction that requires immediate medical attention and a trip to the emergency room to monitor potentially escalating symptoms which can include:
Constriction of airways
Swelling of your throat that makes it difficult to breathe
A severe drop in blood pressure (shock)
Rapid pulse
Dizziness, lightheadedness or loss of consciousness
In other words, if a child with a severe peanut allergy, like the child who was attacked at Wenatchee High School, comes into contact with peanut butter, like the stuff that was spread on his forehead, anaphylactic shock could be a very real, and potentially deadly, result.
Considering the threat to the victim, the perpetrator of the attack was charged with assault and had to serve four days in jail.
There are no words to describe the severity of the threat that food allergies pose to our kids in school. Parents go to great lengths to inform school cafeterias and officials of any allergic reactions their kids may have, to keep them safe while they’re at school. The potential threat from school kitchens is far surpassed by fellow students going out of their way to manipulate food allergies to achieve their own ends.
This is beyond bullying, and must be seen as a criminal act against our children. There needs to be a zero tolerance to any threat posed in this nature, using a physical ailment to gain control or manipulate behavior. It’s beyond unethical, it is criminal, and needs to be treated as such.
We need to remember that even the bullies are kids, and although they may have some idea about the effects of food allergies, the truth is that kids don’t look at long term, or fatal, consequences most times. Schools have a multitude of bullying programs. Their needs to be an integration of education resources about the deadly affects of food allergies into the existing bullying programs. Kids need to understand that using food allergies as a tool in bullying can have fatal effects on their victim and long-term effects on their life as well.
Education reform is not only about renewing the academic goals of our school, but about reinstituting a respect level between peer students and the educational staff that stands as the authority on school grounds. We need to keep this in mind as we rally together as a community to build a better education system.
Posted By: Paul Adams
Tuesday, October 12th 2010 at 9:56PM
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