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My grandson has CD, soy intolerance, and severe, severe peanut allergy.
He cannot even be in a room where peanuts are being served or touch a
peanut.  He has just started Kindergarten and the teacher was very
understanding on the interview before school started.  Now a few days
later she informs my daughter that she will be doing some projects that
include using M & M's (which contain peanut and soy fragments) and will
be making Peanut Pumpkin Cookies with the children.  These projects will
both last one week.  The teacher said that she could not deprive the
rest of the class the opportunity to do these projects and that my
daughter should keep my grandson home from school if he could not
participate during those weeks.

My daughter brought the teacher some GF chocolate chip cookies with
passover chips we froze last spring. (Yummy to everyone who tasted them)
She explained that with a little imagination all the projects could be
adjusted.  We are both teachers and know that lessons must often be
changed to fit the occasion.  The teacher got really cold at the
suggestion that she adjust the plan and again said that she saw no
reason to deprive others.

Then there was a problem with the bus.  He lives on a farm and the ride
in the country can take up to l 1/2 hours on the bus.  She needs to have
the bus driver carry his epi-pen in case another student is eating
peanut butter crackers on the way home.  Often parent give kids snack on
long rides.   The school is refusing, as the bus driver would have to be
trained.  I know that this is more than just CD, but I was wondering if
anyone else has had legal problems with school systems in regard to
protecting the life and happiness of children too young to protect
themselves.

Two years ago a grandmother came to school in a nearby district on a
party day and convinced a child in Kindergarten that she had made
cookies herself and that it was all right to eat them.  He refused
several times, but she was persistent.  The child died 40 minutes
later.  CD part plays a lesser immediate role to peanut allergy which
puts him into anaphylactic shock, but perhaps someone has had a similar
experience and knows where to go for legal advice since the school is
insensitive to the parent and child.

Thanks for any help you can give us.  Carol in NJ