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Undue Burden and Reasonable Accomodation

Comment a comment by NastyPrincess, published on 15 September 2007
Navigate to the top level to view all replies to the article Peanut Wars: Inconvenience vs. Death
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"Reasonable accomodations" which are required by the ADA, can be made by the school system to support children with peanut allergies. They will simply have to change their menus and many ingrediants. Special lunch rooms could be designated for children with food allergies and extra medical kits could be supplied with PpiPens in case of more frequent emergencies. To take it a step further, every adult in every school should be trained in the use of the EpiPen and there should be someone on school grounds at all times trained in Emergency Medicine, not just a school nurse, in the event of a severe Anaphylactic reaction.

"Undue burden" is still yet undefined by the ADA and each time "undue burden" becomes an issue, it is taken to court on behalf of the person who is being eafected. The court system is slowly defining things that are "reasonable accomodations" and things that qualify under "undue burden". It is reasonable that the school system could change their menus due to the ever increasing number of children developing allergies to peanuts. However, it should be considered an "undue burden" to expect that every other parent and child that goes to school with a child with severe allergies to have to adjust thier own diets to suit the needs of a few children. Plus, it is unreasonable to EXPECT other parents and children to care. The fact that many do care is a credit to the human race. The fact that many don’t and won’t care, is reality.

A website in support of allergy sufferers and my arguments above can be found here.

As an EMT, I find it interesting however, that in most states, EpiPens cannot even be found on most ambulances and EMTs cannot administer an EpiPen injection…they can only assist the individual in administering their own injection. An EMT can not perform any actions that are probing or invasive – no injections or needles. A Paramedic however, can administer an EpiPen, but each county differs on the number of Paramedics that it employs and thus Paramedics may not be available in the event that a child forgot their EpiPen that day or is only carrying one. Also, it should be stated that in the case of severe Anaphylactic shock, one Epinephrine injection will only last about 15 minutes. Beyond that, the child will need another injection or needs to be in an emergency room in that window of time in order to guarantee survival. Many children do carry 2 EpiPens do to the fact that the response time of average people from onset of the allergy, calling 911, the actual injection of the Epinephrine and then the response time of an ambulance, one Epi-injection usually does not last long enough. It is an urban legend that an EpiPen will save a life immediately like you see int he movies – person sitting up and thanking everyone profusely after the injection. It merely gives a person the time to get to an emergency room for continued professional care.

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RE: Undue Burden and Reasonable Accomodation by gnifyus :: NR6

Now that the initial panic and bluster is beginning to mellow out a little at the school in which this discussion is about, and the administration has had some time to adjust the to the situation better, here is the way things basically stand now. As you mentioned, the menus in the cafeteria have been adjusted, they have designated a peanut free table in a well ventilated area and all of the involved adults and teachers have been trained and carry the Epi-Pens. I believe more remote phones and other communications have been set up to get the required ambulance there (it’s a small town and the fire station is not far from the school). The only place that is not banned from peanuts now is actually the cafeteria; all other classrooms, gym, hallways, etc are trying to be peanut-free and that’s in order to keep it contained as much as possible for cleaning purposes. Actually no one is using the term "peanut-free" anywhere here because they know it’s completely misleading to believe it is possible to achieve this in a public school.

Plus, it is unreasonable to EXPECT other parents and children to care. The fact that many do care is a credit to the human race. The fact that many don’t and won’t care is reality.

When I used the words in the coffeeshop post, "we can at least form an attitude to try"; this was exactly the type of person that comment was aimed at. (Though I know it does no good.) It’s my nature to want to help people with a problem as much as possible, and so I would do my best to try and comply with the restrictions and believe others should also. That isn’t saying I think it will really happen for both the "non-caring" reasons you stated and the fact that over time people will just start to forget for the simple reason that they have their own problems to deal with. I absolutely believe that 100% peanut free is not sustainable and unachievable over long periods of time in a public school. The compromise they are making by allowing peanut based lunches for those who are going to bring them, seems to be keeping things more civil for the time being, and so far, because the children afflicted have been taught to take great care of themselves anyway, nothing has happened yet. My wife, who is a teacher at the school, is saying that really, it’s not that big a deal anymore as far as working with the safety procedures put in place. (As long as they are followed, of course.)

Thank you for supplying all the ADA info, it saved me from having to troll through and find it, and shows the legal side of the problem the school administrators were under when this situation came up. The way it stands now, they certainly could not just tell anyone they had to ‘stay home’, and so had to what they could to keep the kids as safe as possible. Since the issue of undue burden has usually only been applied at the level of the burden on the institution rather than all the people contained in the institution, I imagine it will be a while before anything changes. On the other hand, since this thing has even our small town in a ruckus, maybe it will have to be addressed sooner than later as these allergies become more common.

Posted 15 September 2007, Hide, Parent, Reply
0 Nerd-Its - +
RE: Undue Burden and Reasonable Accomodation by Anonymous :: NR0

Hmmm….

I should really rely on the judgement of a non-medical professional who can’t spell "ingredients".

Posted 12 October 2008, Hide, Parent, Reply

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