As I mentioned in an Earlier post I recently started working in a primary and secondary school as part of my internship. The previous post included some general comments that I had after only attending the Secondary school (3rd grade – 5th) and what I saw in their lack of meals for children with food concerns as far as I could tell. It seems a sad story of stress and lack of resources for the family and child but I wasn’t aware that I would see some worse actions in my opinion.
Last week I finally worked at the primary school (K-1st) and received some documents to read regarding health concerns of some of the children, such as allergies (I did not see any children with Celiac Disease or Gluten issues on the list), and actions to take to prevent issues arising. I was astonished to find out that the policy at this school was to separate out the children with allergies at lunch time. Depending on their level of allergic reaction kids would either sit at the ‘allergy free table’ or would stay in their class rooms during lunch. I am not sure exactly but I believe that they also sit at a table the is Labeled specifically as the “allergy free table’ since the tables are all labeled by class, however I have not gotten to look at that. This separation, while the easiest and probably safest way to go about it, seems awful to me. To me the emotions of being different, be it from having CD or food allergies, are always there and always playing a part in our lives. It is important to keep them in mind and address them. That being said obviously this will have an affect on children:
1. Firstly you are separating the children out from their class and the friends they have in it, which can be an incredibly lonely and alienating experience for the child.
2. Secondly, you are singling the children with allergies out and being different as we all know can lead to bullying for young children.
While I haven’t seen any instances of bullying yet it seems that others have as discussed in this article on food allergy bullying. It seems that for those with allergies the likelihood of being bullied increases, although most of the surveys were done by parents and not the children themselves. I suspect that if the children did the surveys, or were helped to do them, the rate would be higher since some children keep bullying from their parents. I’m upset but not surprised to see that this alienation and bullying is common practice.
Have you or your children even been bullied or felt alienated due to your Celiac Disease, Allergies or Intolerances? I would love to hear your story and how that made you feel about yourself as well as how you solved the bullying or emotions. Share with me please!