School embraces students with food allergies

WAUCONDA – If Toby Shaw comes in contact with 1/50th of a peanut, he could stop breathing.

That would be on the extreme end of possible outcomes, but doctors don’t know what sort of reaction the fourth-grader at Robert Crown Elementary School in Wauconda may have to peanuts or peanut products.

Shaw has a life-threatening food allergy, but for the past three years, he and his mother, Sheri Shaw-Klich, have worked to make it as accepted and natural as any other medical condition.

The school has done its part, enforcing hand- washing policies before and after lunch and setting up peanut-free zones throughout the school, including “the peanut table” for Shaw and others with peanut allergies to sit at during lunch.

The entire staff also is trained to use an EpiPen in case Shaw goes into anaphylactic shock – an allergic reaction that can be fatal within minutes. Even substitute teachers receive EpiPen training.

“If Toby were to have a reaction walking down the hallway, any teacher could give him his medicine, which is huge,” Shaw-Klich said. “A lot of schools couldn’t do that.”

Still, it’s been a long journey since first grade, when the policies that protect him on a daily basis were first enacted.

“When Toby first went to Robert Crown, he was one of the first kids there that had [food allergies] ...” Shaw-Klich said. “I remember the first week of school, he sat there by himself [at lunch]. Parents were afraid because they didn’t want anything happening, and kids thought it was weird.”

Though extremely grateful for the cooperation the school had provided, Shaw-Klich decided her son’s schoolmates needed to be better informed about food allergies.

With administrative support, she started Food Allergy Week at the elementary school, where students read stories, watched videos and participated in activities about allergies.

The last three years, students have learned to be a P.A.L. – Protect A Life – by washing hands, never teasing those with allergies and never sharing food.

Slowly but surely, attitudes have changed.

“It was pretty hard, not having anyone sit by you,” Shaw said of his first-grade year. “It gradually got better. I think every year it’s getting better. They just think I’m a normal person.”

Julie Skeeters, Shaw’s first-grade teacher who helped implement the policies the school follows, said time may have been the biggest aid in students, parents and teachers adjusting to Shaw’s allergies.

“Before the school year began, it was kind of scary having a child with a medical condition like that in your hands,” Skeeters said of Shaw’s first-grade year.

But it soon became easy to handle.

“It’s not [a big deal any more], and it’s wonderful that it is that way,” Skeeters said.

Once other parents got used to the situation, they were very supportive, Skeeters said. Some parents have even bought extra treats, so if another parent forgets about Shaw’s dietary restrictions and sends a snack the class can’t have, there are backups.

Classmates have learned to read the ingredient labels of their own food to make sure it’s safe to have around Shaw, Shaw-Klich said. And more students can eat lunch at the “peanut table” because hot lunches at Robert Crown are made on peanut-free conveyors.

Shaw and Shaw-Klich’s work has helped other parents with allergy-prone children feel more comfortable about sending them to school, as well.

Ana Barnshaw, mother of first-grader Bobby, said Shaw and Shaw-Klich’s work has been a blessing. Bobby Barnshaw not only is allergic to peanuts, but milk, tree nuts, eggs and soy.

“At the beginning of the school year, I was a nervous wreck,” Barnshaw said. “But now that I know what they do, I’m so confident. I sleep better at night.”

Food Allergy Week has become a great learning tool for students, Assistant Principal Karrie Diol said.

“We need to teach everyone about the differences they have,” Diol said. “And what better place than elementary school ... children accept differences so much sooner than adults.”