Peanuts 'Strongly Discouraged'

I posted recently about an Iowa school board that voted 6-0 to approve a peanut ban. After a public outcry the ban has been pulled. Instead peanuts will be 'strongly discouraged' in the school. It would be interesting to see if this has the same effect. I actually don't have a problem with it as most parents will cooperate. Furthermore, as seen in the Child article this week some parents are going to send peanuts in just to make a point. It's that minority of parents that we have to fear.

Given some of the vitriol on the messages boards in Iowa, it sounds like that state could do with an education roadshow on food allergy. While I understand that this is a minority of kids and peanut allergy is not the only concern, claims that peanut allergy doesn't exist are just absurd.

I suspect that some people are just trying to get a rise out of 'peanut parents'. They think this is a game. Unfortunately they also cannot see the larger issue which is the safety of all children. To them a peanut ban means that peanut parents win and they lose. At the end of the day the fact that peanut is strongly discouraged is a good thing for peanut parents. As noted today however, the intensity of the debate also continues to solidify my opinion that bans are not the way to go.

Nobody wants to be dictated to and the majority of parents are fully willing to cooperate. There has to be a less confrontational way to handle this.