Ah, Max of Pittsburgh, but you forget how the United States (where I live, BTW) has changed. It's now the responsibility of the majority to accommodate even the most extreme needs of minorities of one, and so (as you've certainly seen in western PA) you have entire schools barring kids from bringing peanut-butter cookies or PBJ sandwiches to school because of one kids whose helicopter parents can't tell their kid the following:

"Son, avoid peanuts. If you eat one, you will die. Get ready for school."

Nope, they'd rather force scores of other students to change their eating habits rather than just tell their kid, "avoid this."

Turtle, Rural, Maryland, USA

This article is alarmist as usual. The exclusion is not permanent, the school has identified that there is nobody trained in administering an injection so they've made arrangements for him to be at home while everything gets up to speed. Once staff are able to deal with the medical emergency he will be allowed to return.

Would you inject someone else's child with a life saving drug if you weren't entirely sure of what you were doing? I wouldn't. In this day and age you get sued at the drop of a hat.

If he's only just gone to high school then his education will hardly suffer because he misses a few days at the start of the year. Most kids would be delighted to get the time off.

Can everybody please calm down for once.

Kate, London, England

Rather than shun him, Howden school should be thanking this student for alerting it to a glaring flaw in its policy. Moreover, the school owes him a prompt, sincere and public apology. I teach at an elementary school that covers this situation in our annual teacher orientation before classes even begin. Many children are allergic to nuts, wheat, red dye, milk, bees and a host of substances. Our entire staff is furnished with a list of allergic students. We are all trained in the use of Epipens and the school stocks them along with our other first aid and emergency supplies. Howden's preposterous reaction to this incident calls the entire administration of this institution into question.

Diane Jay, Newbury Park / Thousand Oaks, U.S.A. / California

I think the school should help the kid by having teachers trained in using the epipen, but I do not think it is reasonable to have kids not eat nuts. Peanut butter sandwiches are a healthy vegetarian alternative to meat, and many kids don't like other kinds of sandwiches, at least not all the time. Certainly they are as healthy as ham or other processed meats. Not only that, but many, many other foods contain trace elements of nuts. Not only is it annoying for parents, but how many adults would like to be told not to bring their favorite lunch to work because one out of hundreds of people in their office was allergic? Or, say, what if someone had a coffee allergy? Would it be fair to control everyone else's behavior for oneperson. It is important to make accommodations for the child, but there are limits. Perhaps the American posters are especially coldhearted about this because we've seen too many schools go too far to pressure parents of healthy students in this way.

Alex, Lyndhurst, New Jersey

This unfortunate family was caught in the middle. Of course he should be allowed to go to school if the accommodation he requires is having teachers trained in using the epipen. That is perfectly reasonable. Unfortunately, some pushy parents try to force all other families to change what they feed their kids, and that kind of parental extremism makes it difficult for schools to cope. If schools banned everything that one child might be allergic to, then they couldn't function at all.

Alex, Lyndhurst, New Jersey

some jumped up, nondiscript head teacher, can decide on a childs future ?. How about the boys human rights ,do these only apply the criminals and ethnic 'majorities'. Once again the state takes controll, common sense and justice are again trashed .No wonder people are leaving this dump of a country.( i was going to say england ,but i now know, there is no such place).

ozzy, rotherham, uk

Hang on - why are so many (almost exclusively American) readers ranting on about such extreme allergic reactions that he could die if someone ate nuts near him. This child is a perfectly normally allergic one - he has never had to use his Epipen, but nut allergic kids in the UK are provided with them 'just in case'. It is SO simple to use that a kid can do it, so it is easy to train staff to do so. End of story - he is no more a risk or at risk than ANY child who might choke while eating his lunch, trip over playing sport, fall down the stairs or other things which can happen in the normal school day.
I also have a nut allergic child who is also allergic to Latex and to many unavoidable things such as tree pollens and dust mites. I can assure you that most parents would never sue unless a school the school unless thye'd knowingly given the child nuts - but an intelligent child can easily avoid them and control his risks, especially by the age of 11.
What's the problem?!?

Jac, Aigues-Vives, France

Dear Sam,
I am saddened that you would think that you have the right to invade the lunchboxes of hundreds of children and dictate to thousands of parents what their children should and shouldn't eat. If a child with an allergy is not safe at school, then he or she should never be out in public anywhere, never go to a store or a restaurant or on a bus because you never know who has been touching something that's been cooked in peanut oil or has been made from a machine that also uses peanuts. They should never touch the mail that comes into the house, go to a park, or probably even have a tutor enter their home. Unless you want to get laws passed that control what everyone in your city eats all day and night, there's no point in limiting and controlling the foods other people eat. That is just outrageous and it really isn't anyone else's business.

Alex, Lyndhurst, New Jersey

Why is it so hard for these kids not to eat nuts while they are at school?! They won't die if they don't have nuts, but this child will if he does. He certainly didn't choose to have this allergy! I also think that it's bizarre to feel that going 7 hours without any nut products means you're not living a "normal" life.

As the mother of a child with a peanut allergy I am so saddened by some of these comments.

Sam, Harrisonburg, VA

The question we should be asking is why there's been such a meteoric rise in levels of allergies throughout the developed world since 1950, accelerating dramatically in the last 15 years. What is causing this? Those of us with late-onset Multiple Chemical Sensitivity Syndrome can see pretty blatant evidence that these problems are being caused by modern chemicals, the worst offenders being biological washing powders, pesticides and flame retardants.

But the scientific community seems to have a blind sport here, looking for any alternative explanations they can dream up. Their main idea is that the problem is caused by our modern 'excessively clean' environments, but the evidence that prompts that theory points the finger just as clearly at chemical cleaning products - yet somehow they can't bring themselves to consider that possibility. Perhaps it's because all their research is funded by the same companies that produce these toxic products?

Mark, Nottingham, UK

Mark, is it reasonable to have everyone in the school change for one person? Remember, for the diabetic, they aren't telling people to not bring in things containing sugar. Here in the US at least, I'd say at least 80% of the sandwiches kids brought contained peanut butter.

Rob, Austin, TX, USA

If Ontario, Canada has passed an act to protect anaphylactic pupils (Bill 3 - "Sabrina's Law, 2005"), I don't see why other provinces and countries can't do the same. It works!

The Bill requires that every school board establish and maintain an anaphylactic policy, which must include, among other things, strategies to reduce risk of exposure to anaphylactic causative agents, a communication plan for the dissemination of information on life-threatening allergies, regular training on dealing with life-threatening allergies, a requirement that every school principal develop an individual plan for each pupil who has an anaphylactic allergy and a requirement that every school principal maintain a file for each anaphylactic pupil.

Storm, Ontario, Canada

As it states in the article:

"when the school became aware of George’s nut allergy it was agreed that he should be sent home until a support system had been put in place to ensure his health and safety"

Hardly news. Shame on the mother for going to the press when the school is doing what it can to accomodate her son and keep him safe. Schools should not spend time and resources training staff unless there is a need. There are hundreds of different needs to pick from - should we pay for them to be prepared for everything regardless?

Steve, Leeds, Yorkshire

J. Edwards: You make a good point about "unsympathetic" Americans. Now I'd like to point out that the school that is actually discriminating against a sick child is in your country, not the US. We're free to have differing opinions here. Some are good, some are bad. Lumping everybody together because of some geography is terribly ignorant on your part. Perhaps you can blame your schooling.

Mike, Mustang, Oklahoma

Dear Susan of Ellicott,Maryland,

You say that your child has milk, egg, and peanut allergies. Should all the children give up eggs and milk, too? I think it IS a lot to ask.

Alex, Lyndhurst, New Jersey

Nature is trying to tell that kid something. He has asthma, latex allergies and nut allergies... How does this kid live? And what is with the massive increase in people who are allergic to everything under the sun?

J Bowerman, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

"No policies in place" = "No-one is willing to take responsibility." That said, I'm not sure that I would have had them do anything else -- government executes policy without regard for individual sensibility, and a failure of policy must be just that. There is no room in the equation for someone to "do the right thing." A collection of individuals, each doing what they feel is the correct thing to do in a given situation isn't a government.

Quentin Williamson, NYC, USA

I'm with Lauren. For sure you want your child to be treated fairly, but when a child does require special consideration, then other children should not suffer on account of it. There ought to be a system in place to ensure that those who do require special help are given that without suggesting they are less capable.

Farrukh, Woking, UK

This is nuts. There are thousands of children across the UK with nut allergies. Are we going to exlude them all? Why is this school incapable of doing what every other school in the Uk manages to do? Tony Davies is spot on.

Bristol, Bristol,

I think that it's really sad that some people are ignorant enough to say ship him off to a nut free school. It's bad enough that anyone has to deal with food allergies and be on constant alert in case a reaction were to occur. These students should be allowed in the public schools and not discriminated against. We don't discriminate against anyone else suffering from diseases, why would this be any different? I am a teacher and parent of a 12 month old with egg, milk and peanut allergies. All school personel should be trained in how to use an Epipen regardless if one of their students may need it or not. Our society needs to be aware of the fact that 1 in 17 children suffer from food alleriges and we need to make this a safer place for them to be in. That may mean not eating a peanut butter sandwich at school in order to save someone else's life. I don't think that's too much to ask!

Susan, Ellicott City, Maryland USA

Part of the problem here surely is that no one at the school wants to take responsibility for the special care that this boy requires.

Can you blame them?

You are asking a teaching professional (not a medical professional) to accept a responsibility whch could make them liable to be sued (which would probably wreck their professional life) all in exchange for what? If they were offered any pay incentive at all it probably only came to £500 a year, before tax.

Would you risk you income, reputation and mental health for £320 a year?

Bob, Reading,

In the US in my county the school system has decided to punish the parents of poor children instead of sending the obviously impaired child to a special school. They have banned economical peanut butter sandwiches and granola bars with nuts and the like and require students to bring expensive meat sandwiches and specialty snacks instead. How's that for a brilliant solution?

Ahavah, Lexington, Ky

Fascinating to see that the school's head teacher thinks his "main concern is to ensure that we meet the health and welfare needs of all students.” There used to be a time when he would be mainly concerned with their education.

RW, UK,

Lauren Paisley's School for the Nut-Allergy Kids?

Waverly, New York,

Honestly I do not see what the "accommodations" are that would prevent other kids from leading normal lives. First of all, the accommodation would simply be the banning of nuts from school foods, not really a big deal if a kid doesn't get nuts served to him at lunch. More importantly, banning nuts is not even really necessary. I went through middle school with a friend who was deathly allergic to nuts and the school made no accommodations for him. He simply brought his own food, carried his Epipen with him, and watched what he ate. It was really no big deal. Sure, there was always a risk that something would happen to him at school but it was a small one and no more dangerous then the risks at any other place he might go. He was more then willing to take the risk and no one expected him to stay at home his whole life.

Max Gardner, Pittsburgh,

The people that have commented that the child should stay at home and be kept away from schools are ignorant.

And perhaps so was I until my daughter contracted a life threatening allergy at the age of 15 and I also know someone who started her allergy at the age of 30.

Until you know someone with this problem you do not realise how serious it is - and they have to lead a normal life, go to school, go to Uni, go to work. Providing it is managed they live a normal life.

Allergies are on the increase and nearly every family will have or know someone with an allergy.

Chris Martin, Basingstoke, UK

school should be shut down,if they cant be considerate enough to help this child ,they have no business trying to teach others,what are they teaching intolerance to people ,s handicaps?

john, murry,

It is interesting to note that those with totally unsympathetic views, largely influenced by the money culture, come from USA. It is simple to train someone to use an epipen - it would take five minutes. It would take just as long to write an appropriate paragraph into a school policy. Asking other pupils not to bring nuts to school is a matter of education and understanding which could be covered in the school's PSHE curriculum and no more removes the rights of others than not allowing them to bring pets, for example, to school. A little more empathy would not go amiss.

J.Edwards, lincoln, England

It's also happened in the US at some schools where EVERYONE is told they aren't allowed to bring peanut products to school lest the ONE student who has the allergy should be affected. It can be a tough situation to manage.

Josh, Newport Beach, CA, USA

As a parent of a child with a similar life-threatening allergy, I sympathize with Mrs Hall-Lambert. There is no excuse for a school that does not have in place a protocol for handling such circumstances. For the school to say that a the boy is not welcome because no teacher has training in the use of an Epi-pen is ridiculous. It takes but a couple of minutes to read the instruction leaflet and use the practice injector in order to get the hang of it. In fact, anyone could probably use one without reading the leaflet, it's so simple.
If properly managed there is no need to ban peanuts from the school or lunches. Indeed, the boy's presence should be considered an opportunity to educate the rest of the school about the condition. Denying this child participation in ordinary social activities and education is a form of discrimination.

David Hunter, Austin, TX, USA

Although I can empathize with the child and parents, I have to agree with Lauren. Allowing the special needs child to attend public school and forcing potentially life-altering conditions on all of the other students would be no different than requiring all attendees to live in plastic bubbles to accommodate an immune-deficient student. The reality is harsh and fundamentally unfair to the student with the allergy, but necessary for the majority to lead "normal" lives.
I would feel slighted and would want to lash out if my child had a nut allergy this severe and was not allowed to attend public school. I would have to examine what is best for everyone involved and conclude that my child needs a safe environment that could only be secured at home or in a very controlled environment. I wouldn't want my child to die from an accidental exposure that was beyond my control. I also wouldn't want to be responsible for altering so many people's lives.

John Bayer, Kentucky, United States

I would like to say that Lauren Paisley must be a PRETTY healthy person. I have nut allergies and I HATE it when these people act like I should belong in a bubble. Just wait until karma lays the
"random-life-threatening-disease" smack-down on her first born, cousin, nephew, etc and she'll change her tone.

Bob, Eagle River, Alaska, USA

Truth be told it is actually in the kids with extreme allergy best interests to be taught at home instead of school. if you have such extreme allergy that you can die if the kid next to you is eatting peanut butter then it's safer to be home school. You can ban all peanuts from school but that is even worse because now you are removing the rights of everyone else in the school for the one person. Plus if you ban peanuts what stops someone from bringing them anyway, sure the kid can get in trouble for it but the other kid could die from it. School should have to deal with disabilities to a point, but then also comes a point where it does become extreme and the parents have to accept their kid is different and can't be treated the same and need special accomadations that don't prevent others from leading normal lifes

ned, san bernardino,

If society has reached a point where people need to live in bubbles just to survive, then maybe we have to step back and re-examine society's obligation to such individuals.

Gord, Sudbury, Ontario, Canada

IGNORANCE and not willing to accept that nowadays things are far from normal. Allergies can affect anyone. I tried to tell Tesco's a leading supmermarket(?) that a product (my daughter ate and reacted very badly to) on their shelf was wrongly labelled. They wanted to give me my money back when all I was trying to do was explain to them that someone could die. They would not even take the product off the shelf while they investigated. In fact it is still on their shelves. I do not blame the staff. I blame the govt for not dealing with this ever increasing problem. Even adults are developing allergies in later life. Should we all sit at home and not venture out into the big wide world? Or should we all be shipped off somewehre safe? Education is the key here and local health visitors and nurses are fully trained & visit schools to help. Every school/company should have proper systems in place. Thank you to all the allergy organisations out there helping!!

Varsha Sokal, London, UK

Won't someone think of the peanuts and latex?

Dick Fitzwell, Houston, Texas

With latex and nuts as common as they are in the world, I can't see how that poor kid will last very long anyway. Even if the school were to be perfectly sanitized for his protection, he's likely to come across an allergen simply walking home after classes.

Dave Stephenson, Vancouver, BC, Canada

Both my parents have worked as educators here in Tennessee. My mother has been working as a kindergarten teacher for over 2 decades now and has never asked an student with an allergy to simply go away. If a student has an allergy, even a serious one as described in this article, teachers here in the US simply deal with it. If a child has a nut allergy then the school takes responsibility for at least attempting to keep them away from them. My mother manages to do it every day in a room full of 20 5 and 6 year olds, some of whom are epileptic, autistic, or suffer from some other potential debilitating condition. It says something about the quality of teachers in the UK that they can't simply work the problem to find a solution for ONE kid, that isn't onerous to both the child's family or the faculty. Must be a Teacher's Union thing.

David McDaniel, Nashville, TN, USA

How was this handled years ago? Did peanuts not exist? Were there no children allergic to peanuts?

Kara, Mobile, AL , USA

I am just the opposite. I don't think every kid in the school should have to suffer because of one boy. Keep him home or ship him off to a school just for nut-allergy kids with procedures in place to handle such issues. If the kid were to accidentally be exposed to a nut at the Howden School, the parents could sue the pants off the school. It's a tragedy waiting to happen. One kid should not be allowed to ruin eating nut-products in a whole school, while throwing out the possibility of imminent death if he is accidentally exposed by another child. Get rid of the risk & liability. Let the other kids lead a normal life & don't punish the ones that have nothing wrong with them.

lauren paisley, bristol, united states

You can blame three things for this: the UK's over the top health and safety culture; the fact that nobody takes responsibility for anything these days; and the desire to sue whenever anything goes wrong. Our society is going to the dogs and it's always somebody else's fault.

Tony Davies, Newcastle upon Tyne,

"no policies in place". This story sounds like the one of the "pseudo-cop" watching a boy drown because he "didn't have the training in place"

Bill Peter, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

All companies and indeed all schools have staff trained in first aid (it is a requirement of law), it is not a major leap to teach someone to administer an injection from this pool of staff. Would this same school exclude a diabetic? A child should not be excluded from a school for this reason. It would have been more cost effective all round if they just trained a number of staff on this procedure, rather than pay for one to one teaching at home that isolates the child in question. We are told we cannot treat people differently due to someones size, race, relegion etc, but it is ok to pick on what is a manageable medical condition?

Mark Saunders, London, UK

Perhaps the school staff should look no further than today's edition of The Times ' Lifestyle' section on what to do or least use it to formulate a policy. And get this unfortunate child back into education.

Francis Cumiskey, Leeds, UK