# All peanutbutter at lunch banned to accomodate one child's allergy-Reasonable or not? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [September 9, 2003, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-peanutbutter-at-lunch-banned-to-accomodate-one-childs-allergy-reasonable-or-not/200629 "2003-09-09T23:16:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 2\ **Page:** 9
**Author:** ![blowero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/41988e/32.png) [@blowero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blowero)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2003, 7:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-peanutbutter-at-lunch-banned-to-accomodate-one-childs-allergy-reasonable-or-not/200629/161 "2003-09-15T07:34:29Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Carnick \* > That analogy is a little skewed. We’re not talking about a countrywide ban of peanuts; this is just one class, in one school, with one special circumstance. Also, it’s just applying to lunch hour. The children can all go home or outside class to eat their peanuts. To be precise, YOUR original analogy was skewed. I just pointed out _how_ yours was skewed. You compared mainstreaming special-needs kids into regular classes, which DOESN’T take anything away from the other kids (save maybe a few minutes extra spent with the special-needs student here and there ), with banning peanuts, which DOES take something away from ALL the kids. I just pointed out the flaw in YOUR analogy, that’s all. If my analogy is skewed, it’s in order to point out the flaw in YOURS. > [@](#): > > It’s not like public schools are a champion of personal freedoms. Children are basically treated like partial citizens. Things are banned all the time because of a few bad apples. I don’t disagree with you. And _given_ that one child might die, AND _given_ that that death could be prevented by the peanut ban, AND _given_ that there is NO OTHER WAY to protect the child, AND _given_ that it’s even POSSIBLE as well as PRACTICAL to enforce such a total peanut ban - then I think it would be warranted. I’m just not convinced that ALL those things are givens. Doreen: > [@](#): > > But even if one is so selfish that one’s own child’s convenience (“Wanna PB and J sandwich! Wanna, wanna, wanna!”) seems more important than another child’s life, just how will that child feel about realising that they have caused another child’s death? > > Sure the allergy is rare, but gee, it is so easy to accommodate it. Seems really mean spirited not to try. I think you’ve oversimplified. I don’t think it’s been demonstrated as fact that another kid bringing a PBJ sandwich will definitively result in the child’s death, so you can’t really claim that we’re choosing between “wanting a PBJ sandwich” and “another child’s life”. Consider this argument: Perhaps misplaced trust in the infallibility of the school could cause the parents to forego taking _other_ precautions (such as the epi-pen mentioned before). Then if some kind of peanut product _does_ get in, THAT could result in the child’s death. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2003, 8:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-peanutbutter-at-lunch-banned-to-accomodate-one-childs-allergy-reasonable-or-not/200629/162 "2003-09-15T08:18:10Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Mame \* > **So some kids are so picky that they’ll only eat PB for lunch? For the sake of their health, they need to lose the PB and get a more varied diet!** I am not a professional nutritionist (although I do know a thing or two about food), but a PBJ sandwich seems to me to be quite nutritionally balanced - peanuts are high in protein; bread is a good source of complex carbohydrates, even the jam/jelly _could_ provide a few useful vitamins and other useful things like anthocyanins etc. OK, it is possibly a little rich in fats and sugars, but let’s say the solid part of the lunch consisted of something like: PBJ sandwiches An orange A banana A KitKat I really don’t see a problem with it - certainly this is going to be better and closer to being balanced than ‘lunchables’ or something like that. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-peanutbutter-at-lunch-banned-to-accomodate-one-childs-allergy-reasonable-or-not/200629.md?page=8)