Parents say failing to search every student’s lunch for eggs and peanuts is a violation of their human rights
Parents want school’s allergy checks reinstated
The parents of six Vaughan children with life-threatening allergies have filed complaints to the Ontario Human Rights Commission after one Woodbridge school stopped the practice of checking the lunches of its students.
I was surfing the net reading my usual RSS news feeds the other day and stumbled across the headline above. I had to do a double take, read the whole article to make sure this is exactly what those parents were doing.
Now I’m not a parent, and I’m definitely not a parent of a child with severe allergies to peanuts or eggs. But, to say that it’s a human rights violation against their kids to stop mandatory searches of each children’s lunch is in my opinion a completely ridiculous claim. What happened to putting the onus on educating your own child to perhaps stay away from foods that, I don’t know, might kill them? When did it become the responsibility of the school to look through each kids lunch bag for those deathly PB&J sandwiches. What slippery slope does this setup? Where do the requests stop? Do these parents not allow their kids to eat out, go to the store? I’m surprised the parents don’t have their kid in bubble wrap for the rest of the child’s life.
This whole topic of over protective parents is one that I seem coming up a lot lately. When I grew up we had metal swing sets, and life wasn’t so padded. I turned out fine, sure I have a few scars on my face and a few bumps on my knee, and a fake tooth. Did any of this stop me from jumping off of diving boards, playing hockey in the street or going face first down water slides? Nope, it sure didn’t. Do I regret my childhood, do I wish it was more padded? Nope I sure don’t.
I believe that we should make sure our children are safe, but we can’t protect them everything. Sometimes protecting them from everything robs of the very thing we are trying to keep safe. A life full of fun and adventure is what life should be about, and if takes a broken tooth, or a bloody nose to get there then at the end of the day I believe it’s worth it.
Sheltering your kids from life will only make it harder when they get to the point where they actually have to live outside of their overprotective bubbles.
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