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While I understand that some people have dangerous allergies to peanuts, I find the idea of barring people from bringing peanut products to school absurd. I think it's just another way of removing individual responsibility and of shifting child-rearing duties from parents to already overworked (and largely under-appreciated) educators.

The primary duty of a parent is to prepare their children for adult life. This means teaching them a range of life skills: self-care, finances, nutrition, exercise, and so on. It also means teaching them that there are risks in life, that we all have limitations, and that not everything will run smoothly. Thus, it falls to parents to teach their peanut-allergic offspring that this is a limitation they have, and that there are consequences for disregarding it.

In addition, implementing such a rule would be difficult at best. How would it be dealt with and enforced? Would random lunch-box searches be conducted? Would a student be punished for having peanut products? And what about the teachers and staff? Who will check their lunches and snacks? Also, I've noticed that many prepared foods I purchase have the warning such as, "Prepared in a facility that also prepares peanuts or nut products." Would these food items be banned, as well? The entire situation just becomes too complicated, and distracts educators from their primary duties.

I think the bottom line is that while allergies are a serious issue, so is personal responsibility. These children will someday be responsible for their own health and lives. If their allergies are so severe that eating any peanut products jeopardizes their health or lives, it's our responsibilities as parents to teach them what is and isn't safe for them to eat. Our children will visit friends' houses where peanut products are consumed, restaurants that use peanut products, and so on. If our children have the life skills necessary to determine which foods are safe for them, then a blanket ban on peanut products is unnecessary.

Learn more about this author, Mizuko Koi.
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