This is copied from my husband’s page. Thanks to Laura for fighting for allergy kids and bringing this to our attention!
Clever Public Schools Acts To Benefit Children With Severe Tree Nut Allergies
2
09
2008
Props to the Clever Public Schools.
I’ve learned that in response to a student having a severe enough
allergy to tree nuts that trace amounts could kill her they have taken
the step of removing all tree nuts from the school including removing
“cashew” chicken from their lunch menu. (They still use the sauce for
it but there’s no cashews in it.)
It’s great to see a public school take the steps to protect the health and safety of children by going the extra mile.
Now all we need is Springfield Public Schools to remove peanut products… 
2
09
2008
Sandy (23:23:39) :
Props to my alma mater!
3
09
2008
alexis (12:42:04) :
how
about children with an allergy that severe getting medical assistance
and perhaps receive homebound instruction. At what point in a person’s
life (child or otherwise) do afflictions have to be confronted and
dealt with rather than making everyone else accommodate the afflicted?
Just wondering…
3
09
2008
Jason (12:44:48) :
Who
pays for the homebound instruction? Do the parents pay for it on top of
their school taxes or is it paid for by the school district since they
can’t guarantee the safety of the child?
3
09
2008
thesaphireprincess (22:53:16) :
Alexis,
Like it or not, there are children out there who have allergies so
severe that unless the teacher is willing to be trained to use and is
able (legally) to administer the EpiPen on the spot, that child will
die. Do you HONESTLY think that if a child has an allergy with such
severity, there will really be no medical assistance involved? That is
just ridiculous! So I’m just wondering, if that were YOUR child,
wouldn’t you want to protect them?
As for homebound instruction, WE pay for that, not you, not the
school, WE do. However, even though WE pay for our own daughter’s
instruction, because of a life-threatening allergy, we are still
required to pay for the schooling of your child and every other
publicly educated child in the Springfield system through taxes.
(Although, I reconcile this in my mind with us paying for my nephews’
education, that seems to make it sting a little less.)
You aren’t paying for our child’s education, school supplies or
computer equipment, we are. Granted, we are doing it for the safety of
our daughter and less to accommodate you, but the fact remains that we
are the responsible party when it comes to that bill.
Let me lay this out for you, so that you are aware of what we are NOT asking you to give up…
Our daughter is in less than 1% of peanut allergy patients that have
both a topical (that means on the skin) and an anaphylactic ( in her
mouth, nose, throat and lungs) reaction together. She is even further
into the less than 1% of THAT group with a slow-onset reaction, which
is literally the thing that has saved her life on more than one
occasion.
I could very easily go to Springfield Public Schools and take her
medical records, EpiPens, a bag of peanuts and an emergency medical
team along with Julie and show them the reaction she would have and how
to treat it. ( I would never do that to her BTW) But it simply wouldn’t
matter, because unless I could then get all of the parents at her
schools to then stop using ALL peanut products entirely, she is still
in danger. So we are accommodating YOU. By not going to the school
board and not demanding that something be done, we are making YOUR life
a little easier and you don’t even know it.
As far as the cashew thing goes… cashews are expensive and to be
honest, it is very rare when I actually see a kid at the elementary
ages we are talking about, eat them. So this is saving Clever some
wasted (literally) money. No cashews = more computers, paper, pens,
ect.