Living with Food Allergies, 2013 and on

[jschwab]

OMG, the kids are in online school and the second grader has a lesson right now with a movie on different allergies, including a lot of information on people with food allergies. It's so inclusive, it makes me want to cry. They are glued to the screen.

[notashrimpwimp]

SilverLining, would that concern you? Would that count as respiratory involvement?

It would be lovely to not worry about being around people who eat. Imagine the adventures!

[hezzier]

I love DS's teacher.  Went to the classroom the other day and she has 2 signs (one on the window and one on the door frame) that says no food allowed in her classroom!!  I asked her if it was new...she said no, but I hadn't noticed it before.  Now, I have to say, it's not quite true because she still gives out candy to the kids and will allow birthday treats if they have been pre-arranged, but cannot contain any nuts.

She did this all on her own. 

[CMdeux]

Y'all remember my hissy fit re: field trips years ago?

You know-- the hissy fit that involved legal nationally?

And resulted in fully-accessible field trips?

THERE WILL BE NUTS in the Baskin Robbins, so be careful!

- This trip is food focused and may not be a good choice for students with allergies. We will be touring active kitchens and may be working with food as well.

Just goes to show you that some people apparently can't really "get" what inclusion means.  Because given the descriptions of each activity, the disclaimers above SHOULD NOT have been necessary.

Their ONLY legitimate purpose is exclusion.   "by the way, ________ not welcome here." 

Put this in ANY other context, and it screams "illegal" in addition to 'squicky as all hell.'

"IMAX films may not be a good idea for those with seizure disorders."

"those with orthopedic challenges should be aware that the hike covers steep terrain and is probably not suitable for them."

Seriously-- not five years ago, I took these people into a headlock with the assistance of their corporate legal team and OCR DC.  My daughter did it LAST year over something ELSE.

Clearly some educators are just not that bright.  (No offense intended.)

I'm just.... SO... tired.

[jschwab]

CMdeux, are those required field trips? I'm curious about the law because I have always viewed it as very squidgy when it comes to school activities and disabilities. Are schools required to accommodate every child at every activity, because they certainly don't. I would push for more inclusion of kids with food allergies even though my kids are not affected if I knew which legal leg to stand on, so the families themselves don't always have to be the bad guys. I actually had an anaphylactic reaction at a school event one based on bad catering information.

[twinturbo]

That's all linked/covered in Schools subforum. It is regulated through ADAA, Civil Rights, etc., as is any qualifying disability that meets legal and medical definition.

[CMdeux]

jschwab, you definitely get where this edges into grey territory with them-- all field trips are ALL covered as "voluntary" activities, but to be "official" activities, they also HAVE to be sanctioned (and that is the term they use) and also have to be "educational" somehow...

which means that yeah-- TECHNICALLY, everything is supposed to be accessible to ALL.

Which clearly isn't the case, nor should it be, in all probability, given that a virtual school is going to be drawing disproportionally from populations which are homebound for medical reasons or those seeking a non-B&M schooling setting for reasons related to disabling conditions.

So should ALL field trips be open to ALL students and also be accessible to EVERY family in the state?

Probably not, kwim?

Where I have a big, big, BIG problem with this is that it treats FA's very differently than any other disability-- and I'm almost wondering if it isn't retaliatory.  I refused to do marketing for them this year.

I don't think for one instant that this isn't about my DD.  Not for an instant.  Because the entire policy w.r.t. food on field trips in this state is about her.  Seriously-- that carefully crafted disclaimer/notice about short/long field trips and food/no food is IN MY CHILD'S 504 plan.

So to do an end-run around her privacy like this?  Oh yeah-- I'm PISSED.  BIG-TIME.


The ONLY other mention of disability in any way/shape/form (in about two dozen statewide field trips that I've looked at this morning) in my state was w.r.t. a park field trip which stated:

"XXXXXXX park is wheelchair accessible."

Seems reasonable.

Also seems reasonable to me that people MANAGING their own diabetes, RA, FA's, or anything else are probably the best judges of what is or is not a good idea.  You know, without the school pointing out that they aren't welcome.  I'm also really angry because it's so darned presumptuous to assume that just because DD couldn't possibly safely attend either trip-- that NO kids with nut/other FA could.  Sheesh. 


Substitute racial info into those statements I posted and see how THAT one looks. 

[CMdeux]

Jackpot:

Section 504 and Students with Disabilities.

In order to ensure that students with disabilities have equal access to the school program, Section 504 requires that schools provide accommodations. So, if a student with a disability needed an accommodation or related aids and services to participate in the field trip, those services must be provided.
For example, in Quaker Valley (PA) Sch. Dist., 39 IDELR 235 (OCR 1986), a girl with a neurodegenerative disorder that affected her motor, sensory, perceptual, and language functioning was denied the opportunity to go on field trips and participate in a swimming program. Due to "safety concerns", the school principal had unilaterally made the decision to exclude her from six field trips with her third grade class, including a trip to a television station. She was the only student excluded from the field trips. In school the girl was provided with accommodations, such as an escort to assist her when walking and holding her hand. But no consideration was given to providing similar accommodations on the field trips or in the swimming program. The Office for Civil Rights (OCR) determined that the "safety" considerations were not justified and that the girl should have been provided with accommodations to ensure her participation in the field trips and the swimming program. Additionally, OCR determined the school district violated Section 504 because it did not notify the girl's parents of the upcoming field trips, while the other children's' parents were notified.
On the other hand, OCR has found that there are times when schools, after individual consideration, may exclude a student from a field trip if the student's participation presents an unacceptable risk to the student's health or safety. But the school must be able to justify that determination. In North Hunterdon (MD) Pub. Sch. Sys., 25 IDELR 165 (OCR 1996), OCR determined that the school district was justified in excluding a student from a field trip when the student had several seizures on the same day as the field trip.

In the instance of food allergy, it's VERY unlikely that a determination re: safety/advisability CAN be made without inputs from the child's parents regarding risk and current status.

[hezzier]

I love DS's teacher.  Went to the classroom the other day and she has 2 signs (one on the window and one on the door frame) that says no food allowed in her classroom!!  I asked her if it was new...she said no, but I hadn't noticed it before.  Now, I have to say, it's not quite true because she still gives out candy to the kids and will allow birthday treats if they have been pre-arranged, but cannot contain any nuts.

She did this all on her own.

Ok, I reread the sign today, says "Allergy Alert:  No food in the classroom unless approved by Mrs. teacher, Mrs. principal or Mrs. nurse"

[twinturbo]

So I've had a banner freakin' day here yet I have to say there was some traction in clarification. I have two updates on nitty gritty details re:air ambulance memberships and MedicAlert's GPS. For whosoever wants to know how does it work--exactly.

(P.S. I ripped eTrak a new one)

Air ambulances like REACH, Lifeflight, Air Med, etc. have memberships available for purchase. The membership covers a family for one year. Anything above what insurance pays them they eat in cost if you are a member. What it does not do is allow you to call upon them directly. The membership also functions on a geographic territorial network with limited reciprocity with other air ambulance services. There are a mix of helicopters and planes but each craft and crew is stationed at different locations. They respond ONLY to EMS dispatch or fire/rescue, which means you call in to 911 and would need to impress very clearly to the dispatcher that you have a pediatric patient experiencing anaphylaxis, you've administered epinephrine, the clock is ticking on that effectiveness therefore you can't wait 30-45 minutes for a truck to show up in the boonies. You've got a REACH or Lifeflight membership, you've talked to them you know they can get there in 10 minutes and that they are equipped to handle pediatric patients. This is the advice one of the crew and the sales team gave me, the sales gal I talked to has a child with peanut anaphylaxis so she definitely "got" the situation having been there first hand.

Here's your problem with location if you're out in the middle of nowhere--your location. I got the MedicAlert GPS Essentials tracking device "powered by eTrak" which means they are responsible for the one-button 'panic' device itself and the tracking system/software. Where MedicAlert comes in is that they are tied in to specific devices keyed to notify them if the 'panic' mode is enabled with a 2-second push. A text message notifies pre-set parties that the panic signal has been activated. Then MedicAlert tries to call those registered parties. If the parties cannot be reached EMS is called on the location of the GPS for a wellcheck.

So here's where the GPS is an epic fail: any tree, or valley, or nearly any obstruction inhibits the signal from communicating with the satellite. Say you want to go to a forest. GPS loses you and starts to track you by slinging off of cell towers (in eTrak's case it's Verizon). Your location becomes wherever that Verizon cell tower is. And once too far for the range of a Verizon cell tower your little eTrak has not been programmed smartly enough to know to not keep jamming out a perpetual fast-paced battery draining signal in order to fulfill its mission to update. Say, can't I just find the wifi in a local federal forest thingie out in the woods to sit and update my GPS because it can use wifi to update? ONLY IF that wifi location is preprogrammed in to be recognized as a location in the receiving database (per DH former IT computer engineer).

What does this mean? A trip to the woods with a GPS panic button and an air ambulance sounds like an awesome tactical extraction on paper. What it yields is a GPS that last locates on a Verizon tower miles away from destination while poor little GPS freaks out trying to update and drains itself dry. The first set of trees or valleys obscures the signal forcing the unit to rely on cellular or wifi. Trying to force an update via wifi at destination will only work if destination is already a known area programmed into territory. Your air ambulance membership still puts you at the mercy of emergency dispatch, you'd have to convince them to radio over to Lifeflight. This is all assuming you're in the area of your membership coverage.

Both the air ambulance and GPS cell ID territory network would have to be consulted via map in order to understand your coverage. Expert knowledge of how the GPS will function, or more importantly not function, and possibly how emergency dispatch works would basic requirements to understand the limitations.

There was one new thing the air med people turned me on to and that is fire med memberships available through the city. I'm going to follow up with the REACH/Lifeflight crew in person some time. They're going to let me check out the craft and pester them in person, pretty cool of them. I'll look into the fire med and bug local law enforcement and/or FD for that membership. It's supposed to be easy for us to access so I'd be surprised if it's more than looking it up on the internet, but still I'm a stickler for details. Not on tonight's agenda though.

[CMdeux]

Cellular service out in the western coastal states, btw--



very spotty.  VERY.  Particularly once away from the coastal-valley, I-5 corridor.

Just driving to the coast, there is a 20-30 MILE wide dead spot in my coverage with Verizon, and I mostly have no coverage while on the beach, either. 

Also worthy of note-- at least in the PNW, Verizon coverage tends to be dramatically better than AT&T outside of urban areas, and either one is several orders of magnitude better than any OTHER cellular carrier.    There's a reason why relatively few people out here had iPhones until recently.   We're not philistines-- just pragmatic. 

Great research on that subject, TT.  I guess that I sort of knew most of that instinctively having grown up out here-- that LifeFlight wasn't 'on-call' to its members, so to speak-- but it never occurred to me that it MIGHT be, if that makes sense.  Sorry; I probably could have saved you some time there if I'd know that was what you were thinking about. 

I've had paws in a REACH copter before-- nicely equipped, very professional staff. 

In outlying areas of the PNW, also be aware that EMS may be "volunteer" rather than fulltime professionals.  Now, that isn't necessarily a BAD thing.  For example, we have a nuclear engineering prof who is a County deputy sheriff here- auxiliary.  He's a great guy, and just as well-trained as the paid officers, with nearly identical duties/powers. 

[jschwab]

jschwab, you definitely get where this edges into grey territory with them-- all field trips are ALL covered as "voluntary" activities, but to be "official" activities, they also HAVE to be sanctioned (and that is the term they use) and also have to be "educational" somehow...

which means that yeah-- TECHNICALLY, everything is supposed to be accessible to ALL.

Which clearly isn't the case, nor should it be, in all probability, given that a virtual school is going to be drawing disproportionally from populations which are homebound for medical reasons or those seeking a non-B&M schooling setting for reasons related to disabling conditions.

So should ALL field trips be open to ALL students and also be accessible to EVERY family in the state?

Probably not, kwim?

Where I have a big, big, BIG problem with this is that it treats FA's very differently than any other disability-- and I'm almost wondering if it isn't retaliatory.  I refused to do marketing for them this year.

I don't think for one instant that this isn't about my DD.  Not for an instant.  Because the entire policy w.r.t. food on field trips in this state is about her.  Seriously-- that carefully crafted disclaimer/notice about short/long field trips and food/no food is IN MY CHILD'S 504 plan.

So to do an end-run around her privacy like this?  Oh yeah-- I'm PISSED.  BIG-TIME.


The ONLY other mention of disability in any way/shape/form (in about two dozen statewide field trips that I've looked at this morning) in my state was w.r.t. a park field trip which stated:

"XXXXXXX park is wheelchair accessible."

Seems reasonable.

Also seems reasonable to me that people MANAGING their own diabetes, RA, FA's, or anything else are probably the best judges of what is or is not a good idea.  You know, without the school pointing out that they aren't welcome.  I'm also really angry because it's so darned presumptuous to assume that just because DD couldn't possibly safely attend either trip-- that NO kids with nut/other FA could.  Sheesh. 


Substitute racial info into those statements I posted and see how THAT one looks.

OK, now I get your point completely. Yes, that is ridiculous to use exclusionary language from the get-go, just throwing up a wall and making kids feel unwelcome for no reason, although they are probably thinking they are being helpful. In PA, they usually ask families to volunteer the information if they need accommodation privately to the organizer and then they make a blanket stipulation for that trip or activity that no peanuts/shellfish/tree nuts/dairy, etc. should be brought by other families. I think some types of activities/offices have a blanket peanut ban altogether. I was just curious because I know some of the staff who organize the field trips and I could probably slip in some personal advocacy to them on how better to handle things for allergy families, if needed Everyone needs allies, you know? That reaction I had at a school event I was so mortified and it was really bad (the potato salad was made with sour cream instead of just mayonnaise) and I just sucked it up and hid. I was too afraid to use my Epi-Pen. Imagine being a kid and trying to be cool at your first school event!

[jschwab]

Jackpot:

Section 504 and Students with Disabilities.

In the instance of food allergy, it's VERY unlikely that a determination re: safety/advisability CAN be made without inputs from the child's parents regarding risk and current status.

Gotcha.

[jschwab]

So I've had a banner freakin' day here yet I have to say there was some traction in clarification. I have two updates on nitty gritty details re:air ambulance memberships and MedicAlert's GPS. For whosoever wants to know how does it work--exactly.

(P.S. I ripped eTrak a new one)

Air ambulances like REACH, Lifeflight, Air Med, etc. have memberships available for purchase. The membership covers a family for one year. Anything above what insurance pays them they eat in cost if you are a member. What it does not do is allow you to call upon them directly. The membership also functions on a geographic territorial network with limited reciprocity with other air ambulance services. There are a mix of helicopters and planes but each craft and crew is stationed at different locations. They respond ONLY to EMS dispatch or fire/rescue, which means you call in to 911 and would need to impress very clearly to the dispatcher that you have a pediatric patient experiencing anaphylaxis, you've administered epinephrine, the clock is ticking on that effectiveness therefore you can't wait 30-45 minutes for a truck to show up in the boonies. You've got a REACH or Lifeflight membership, you've talked to them you know they can get there in 10 minutes and that they are equipped to handle pediatric patients. This is the advice one of the crew and the sales team gave me, the sales gal I talked to has a child with peanut anaphylaxis so she definitely "got" the situation having been there first hand.

Here's your problem with location if you're out in the middle of nowhere--your location. I got the MedicAlert GPS Essentials tracking device "powered by eTrak" which means they are responsible for the one-button 'panic' device itself and the tracking system/software. Where MedicAlert comes in is that they are tied in to specific devices keyed to notify them if the 'panic' mode is enabled with a 2-second push. A text message notifies pre-set parties that the panic signal has been activated. Then MedicAlert tries to call those registered parties. If the parties cannot be reached EMS is called on the location of the GPS for a wellcheck.

So here's where the GPS is an epic fail: any tree, or valley, or nearly any obstruction inhibits the signal from communicating with the satellite. Say you want to go to a forest. GPS loses you and starts to track you by slinging off of cell towers (in eTrak's case it's Verizon). Your location becomes wherever that Verizon cell tower is. And once too far for the range of a Verizon cell tower your little eTrak has not been programmed smartly enough to know to not keep jamming out a perpetual fast-paced battery draining signal in order to fulfill its mission to update. Say, can't I just find the wifi in a local federal forest thingie out in the woods to sit and update my GPS because it can use wifi to update? ONLY IF that wifi location is preprogrammed in to be recognized as a location in the receiving database (per DH former IT computer engineer).

What does this mean? A trip to the woods with a GPS panic button and an air ambulance sounds like an awesome tactical extraction on paper. What it yields is a GPS that last locates on a Verizon tower miles away from destination while poor little GPS freaks out trying to update and drains itself dry. The first set of trees or valleys obscures the signal forcing the unit to rely on cellular or wifi. Trying to force an update via wifi at destination will only work if destination is already a known area programmed into territory. Your air ambulance membership still puts you at the mercy of emergency dispatch, you'd have to convince them to radio over to Lifeflight. This is all assuming you're in the area of your membership coverage.

Both the air ambulance and GPS cell ID territory network would have to be consulted via map in order to understand your coverage. Expert knowledge of how the GPS will function, or more importantly not function, and possibly how emergency dispatch works would basic requirements to understand the limitations.

There was one new thing the air med people turned me on to and that is fire med memberships available through the city. I'm going to follow up with the REACH/Lifeflight crew in person some time. They're going to let me check out the craft and pester them in person, pretty cool of them. I'll look into the fire med and bug local law enforcement and/or FD for that membership. It's supposed to be easy for us to access so I'd be surprised if it's more than looking it up on the internet, but still I'm a stickler for details. Not on tonight's agenda though.

What hunters and hikers do is use those GPS emergency services (never cell, obviously - you might as well throw it in the campfire) but ALWAYS with a detailed plan left behind with someone contactable It may not sound fun to follow a very detailed plan on your trip for where you will be but if the emergency service calls an emergency contact first and they can give details from your plan AND you are prepared to send up flares in the event of emergency, it might be worth the effort to get you where you want to be. Also, I know that in some areas in the mountains, other signaling devices are available (avalanche transceiver). Maybe they will scan for those on Mount Rainier? 

[twinturbo]

Right, this IS a GPS device that when GPS fails due to an obstruction such as a tree it then resorts to cell ID. Per eTrak the GPS device and service provider this is a GPS satellite issue in signal obstruction of any GPS device. Garmin, etc., any brand same problem: signal obstruction between device and satellite.

The plan for a lost party in the woods or injured would work for a lost or injured party--not an anaphylaxing one. It does nothing to address the issues of immediacy and precise location as I related to said devices and services. Hope that clears it up.

And I want to add for this population with high membership and trust with MedicAlert specifically is that they are responsive to the issues with eTrak (who they contract for GPS device and service) but they are not physically familiar with the device or its software interface. The marketing material does not convey the limitations of the tracker per previous post, so the idea of (and I quote) never having to worry where a loved one is again does not hold up technically. There's no way they can deliver on that one.

In outlying areas of the PNW, also be aware that EMS may be "volunteer" rather than fulltime professionals.  Now, that isn't necessarily a BAD thing.  For example, we have a nuclear engineering prof who is a County deputy sheriff here- auxiliary.  He's a great guy, and just as well-trained as the paid officers, with nearly identical duties/powers.

Sort of. That's actually close to part of my background so I know those programs first hand. My understanding is volunteer FF actually have more in common with paid than volunteer LE have with paid FT sworn personnel. The latter come in more variety differently purposed and some LE agencies will simply not allow them at least not in the capacity of sworn personnel.

I didn't go with the notion that air ambulances are on call but I did want to feel out how far the social engineering goes. I think there's some room there for me to explore. Professionally speaking it's in my interest to follow up if I'm to springboard off of my LE background into GIS at some point. I already know the local PD structure, personnel, county, dispatch. At some point I'm going to circle back to dispatch if I can.