Rishon Rishon

Maryland schools ban peanut butter and orange juice

"We wouldn't want them to be sharing peanut butter with other kids who might have a hypersensitivity," said Donna Heller, health services manager for Howard County schools. "Even with orange juice, we require a note from the parents."

Montgomery County schools treat orange juice as an over-the-counter medicine. A student must bring in a doctor's note to drink it, and only older students are allowed to carry it with them at school.

"If you had a very young kid, and they put it in their eyes, it could hurt them," said Judith Covich, Montgomery's director of health and student services.

Okay, I doctored the quote a little. Here's the original (via Best of the Web):

"We wouldn't want them to be sharing them with other kids who might have a hypersensitivity," said Donna Heller, health services manager for Howard County schools. "Even with hand and body lotions, we require a note from the parents."

Montgomery County schools treat sunscreen as an over-the-counter medicine. A student must bring in a doctor's note to apply it, and only older students are allowed to carry it with them at school.

"If you had a very young kid, and they put it in their eyes, it could hurt them," said Judith Covich, Montgomery's director of health and student services.

In response:

A bill pending in the Maryland legislature, however, would require school health officers to make sure students are allowed to wear sunscreen when they go outdoors on sunny days, a right that is not universally recognized in schools, according to cancer prevention advocates.

The problem, [State Congresswoman] Healey said, is that not all schools and school systems have properly trained health officers, and whatever the system rules, individual schools often vary in their approach to medicine and skin products.

"Their focus and their background and all their training is in pedagogy," Healey said. "They don't have an expertise in health care."

The problem is is not: "They don't have an expertise in health care" (of course, everyone with the proper training and expertise would naturally agree with me), the problem is that the authorities feel free to impose by state law or bureaucratic fiat whatever they think is best. The only reason that they can get away with it is that they compel you to send your children to the school of their choice. If the choice were placed in the hands of the consumers (or, in this case their guardians), schools which had silly rules wouldn't attract students. (Every private school that I know of has lots of rules that lots of people think are silly. Funny how they still attract students, maybe some people think they're not so silly after all...) Let the people professionals decide!