Feel Like Being An Activist?

Once upon a time, I wasn’t a Mama.  I was a 15 year old, hormone-riddled freak of nature, just like all teenagers are.  And just like all kids, I went to school.

For the most part, I had a decent time in school.  The social labyrinth notwithstanding, I enjoyed learning new things.  Well, except for this one, little, irritating thing:  the school systems are rather stupid about many of their rules.  I guess anything government run can’t see the forest for the trees sometimes, but I found this new knowledge to be something I wished I’d never had to deal with.

For example, at my school they issued a rule that you had to wear a belt with your pants.  So despite the fact that I had been forced to lay down on my bed in order to zip my jeans one morning, I found myself in the prinicipal’s office waiting for my Dad to bring me a belt.

Stupid.

Or, if you had a headache, you could/would be expelled for popping your own aspirin in the hall.  You had to have a parents’ note, and leave the medicine in the nurses office, make the time – somehow – in the 5 minutes between each class to mosey on down there, and beg her for a pill.  You know, if she was in her office, and not off on her own little break at the time.

Stupid.

But stupidity is often the name of the game when dealing with public schools.  If you’re like me, you rolled your eyes at the ridiculous rules in place, and figured out a way to circumvent them when necessary.

That’s not always an option for kids with food allergies.  Schools are much more receptive to these children and their food issues nowadays, but one thing has not changed much: medicine rules.

Most states still require the children to leave their Epi-pen – complete with Doctor authorization – in the nurses office during school hours.

Think about that for a second.  Seriously.  A child with the potential to have a life-threatening reaction that can take only a few short minutes to prove fatal must leave their life-saving medicine in a nurses office some distance away, and so before this child can be treated with this life-saving medicine, someone must see the child react, recognize it for the anaphylaxis that it is, run to the nurses office, explain the situation, wait for her to get the Epi-pen, run back to the child, and then administer the shot once the nurse has verified the child needs it.

And let’s not forget that many children with mild food allergies can suddenly have a severe reaction out of the blue…often anaphylaxis reactions do not come with first exposure to a food.  So now little Jimmy or Janie is in the school, seriously reacting to a food, and even though there are Epi-pens in the nurses office, and she has been summoned to the sick child, she can do nothing but watch the child die in front of her…because it’s against the rules to administer an Epi-pen without a doctor’s note.

Um…we’ve progressed WAY beyond stupid now, right into the ballpark of reckless endangerment.

True, many children with severe food allergies can have a 504 plan documenting that they will carry their Epi-pen with them, but many states do not allow the Epi-pen out of the nurses office even with a 504 plan.

Let’s fix this stupid rule, shall we?  The School Access to Emergency Epinephrine Act (S. 1884/HR. 3627) will allow states to require schools to maintain an easily accessible supply of epinephrine and allow them to administer it to any child believed to be having an anaphylactic reaction.

This means, no more Epi-pens in the nurses office only.  They will be located throughout the school and NOT under lock and key, which could well make the difference between life and death.  

This is important stuff, here!  I mostly write about my kids non-IgE mediated allergies on here, but I never forget that they both have serious IgE allergies that require the use of an Epi-pen in addition to their other FPIES style allergies.  One day they may be in public schools, and I would feel much more comfortable with that situation if I knew that they could carry their Epi-pens with them, and that there were backup Epi-pens available and accessible should it be necessary.

Aside from my own kiddos, something like 8% of children in public schools have at least one food allergy.  Those are just the kids who have been diagnosed and have reported it to the school district; the actual number could be higher.  So there are lots of little munchkins running around that will benefit greatly from this legislation.

So take a moment to be an activist today!  The bill is in committee, and they’ve yet to make their report.  There is still time to make your voice heard.  Write your Congressmen and Senators and tell them you support this legislation.  Tell them to vote YES for this act.  Tell them to be decent human beings and save children’s lives.  

Consider it your good deed for the day.  Thank you for being so nice.  And for kicking stupidity in the butt.

(I’ve read and heard about this act before, but my reference for this post came from an article in Living Without magazine.)