Peanut Allergy

brown

We are a private boarding school with 100 students. We have an employee (teacher) with a severe allergy to peanuts who can't even be in the room with someone who ate peanut butter and has it on their breath. Is it a "reasonable accommodation" for us to ban all peanut products?

Nrdgrrl

I don't know if this will help, but just to let you know...

My child goes to a Montessori school (days) with around 150 other children. They do not allow peanuts at all because one child, in a different building, has the allergy.

brown

Do you know if they have a policy about outside vendors - i.e. if there is work being done in the building by outside contractors. It just seems to me that this policy is far too difficult to enforce, and what if a peanut slips by?

Hatchetman

I assume the teahcer meets the definition of ADA disabled.

Remember, the medical condition must impact a major life activity (and certainly breathing is) is a substantial manner (in comparison to the average individual in the general population). The problem here may be how often she runs into the situation of someone or a child eating or just having eaten peanut butter. Does the medicla conditin also kick in to any peanut related prouct (some materials such as packing may have peanut based substances in them.

In terms of the reasonableness, "reasonable" applies to the employee and employer and not to other individuals. Modification of policy -- in this case banning children eating peanut butter at school -- could be a reasoanble accommodaiotn if it is effective in achieving its purpose. However, if the modification, causes an undue hardship by being significantly disruptive to the school environment or teacher-student relationship, I suspect it probably wouldn't need to be applied.

The real problem, it seems to me, in what you are trying to implmeent is to address what the child eats prior to coming to class and enforcing it. That could be what makes the policy not effective or not fully reasonable. You may have to work out several accommodations.

You should be talking to the teacher for some ideas. And also ot legal counsel if there is any problem in implementing what you and the teacher come up with.

Antoher possible resource is the Job Accommodaiton Network. They are on the internet. You may want to contact them for some ideas as well.

HRQ

15 of our 17 preschools have at least one child with nut allergies enrolled. Reactions range from a runny nose to an emergency room visit and even death. The reaction becomes more severe with every exposure. Simply walking by the peanut display at a grocery store resulted in an emergency room visit for one child.

About a year ago, we made the decision to ban all nut products from all of our schools. We heard many complaints from parents and staff that it is unfair to deprive them of their nut products for the sake of just a few children. (It HAS been a struggle getting through some days without peanut M&M's)

We stood by the policy. We removed all nut products from the menu and from the vending machines. We created a brochure explaining the allergy and how we deal with it. We placed signs in the lobbies stating "This school is a Nut Free Zone". (Yes, lots of jokes resulted x:) ) The Directors also put up reminders, especially around the traditional candy-saturated holidays, that any party treats brought in must be nut-free.

We still get the occasional complaint, but once the Directors felt comfortable explaining and enforcing the rule, things calmed down.

We felt all this was reasonable, just difficult for a while. Our parents appreciate it, particularly one employee whose child has the allergy. She's been a huge help in training the staff and I'll bet your teacher is willing to help put together the program.

dixied

I recently had an employee come forth with this problem. We formulated a letter to her physician asking specific questions about her allegy, consquences, etc. We sent her signed release of information and the doctor replied to each of our questions. We had a dept. meeting and explained the allergy and requested (not ban) that her co-workers not bring peanuts or peanut butter into the dept. The employee answered questions from her co-workers. We attempted to keep it all rather low key. We plan to counsel individuals if the need arises.
This was an eye opener for me..I didn't realize the severity of the allergy.

SMace

HRQ hit the nail on the head. My daughter has a peanut allergy. It is not severe, yet.. The schools we are involved with already have banned peanuts so it's not any issue. I would say it is and ADA issue, it deals with the major life function of living. Once people learn about it I don't see how they can help to understand.