Been here before, have a new question

[LianneV]

I was here 2 years ago when my DS was in kindergarten.  You guys were amazingly helpful, and probably the only I was able to get him a 504 plan as his school resisted it every step of the way, but I knew the right words to say thanks to all of you.
So now he's in 2nd grade and we have a new problem.  This past June Ds was diagnosed with autism, so he just now in the past few weeks started attending a social skills group.  Today on our way out of school he showed me the snack he got from the group's teacher...I looked at the ingredients "may contain peanuts" I told him he couldn't have it cause it wasn't safe. "But mommy, he gave it to me before and I ate it and I was fine" OMG! So I waited for half an hour to talk to the principal(new principal thank goodness, I doubt the old one would have even cared). He took it seriously and said he'd talk to the teacher, but this guy knows. He was at the meeting when I mentioned his life threatening allergy and the guy wrote it down! What terrifies me is DS thinks it should be fine if he got lucky the first time and that it will be fine every other time.
So obviously this violates his 504 plan, that I believe every teacher that interacts with him is supposed to know about (even though I had told him as well) I've always tried to keep this civil cause I believe taking thing furthers aggravates the situation, but this is it.  He ate it!! Yes I obviously need to be clearer about not trusting anyone, but the nurse should have checked it, he should have, or not given him any kind of a food reward. I worry about retaliation (not legal, but still a possibility) but this is it.  So...what do I do, who do I report it to? What happens to them?
Please help me.

[CMdeux]

Ooooo-- yeah, there's little danger of "making too big a deal" of this one.  Meeting-time.

(Insist on that-- 504 team and the guilty party, at a minimum)

Here's how I'd lay it out.

1.  We all got very very VERY VERY L.U.C.K.Y.

2.  "MAY" contain means just that-- meaning...





(yeah-- I know that YOU know, but make sure that when you're done, THEY know, too)


he could have died from this.  Really.  Just everyone's good fortune that he didn't. 

Pure...

\DUMB


LUCK.

Cite stats for just how many of such items ARE contaminated-- ask them how they like those odds.    (It's about 8-12%, I think.  Yikes, huh?)




3.  New problem-- even if the ADULTS here are all properly terrified and put rules in place to never, EVER let such a thing happen again....

you still have to REMEDIATE the lesson that your child learned here-- that it is sometimes okay to eat things labeled this way. (OMG-OMG-OMG-- this is where that Star Trek red-alert noise needs to be rolling)






Be thinking about solutions for "failsafes" so that this CANNOT happen again.  Because if you don't-- it will.   

Wow, am I ever glad that your son is okay.   

[twinturbo]

Not much to add because I'm in a similar situation between food allergy and special education. I haven't found a lot of recourse within the special education system even though I would be able to report it the problem I run in to is that this is the developmental stuff I need. It isn't solvable by transferring schools, changing teachers, etc. At least in our case.

Lianne, I have a MedicAlert GPS Essentials for one child. It functions no more no less than any other GPS tracking device but one cool feature is a 'panic button' that sends instant text alerts to predesignated people. Then MedicAlert follows up with an immediate phone call to the designated contacts. You decide together to send in EMS or not, but if you cannot be reached MedicAlert sends EMS to the location of the GPS signal for a wellcheck. It clips on and works on a one-button system. My son has been able to use it in an emergency to get our attention. It turned out alright but he was able to use the right button length sequence and MedicAlert was on top of it as advertised. I mention it only if you think you'd like a way for him to reach out to you in an emergency but isn't ready for a phone yet.