Assault with a deadly peanut
Categories: Newborns, Teens & tweens, Health & safety, Education
Sure, you could argue that it's all just fun and games, but sometimes someone can end up getting seriously hurt. Someone almost did get very seriously hurt in Lexington, Kentucky. An eighth-grade student at Morton Middle School thought it would be funny to put crushed bits of peanut butter cookies in the lunchbox of another eighth-grader. The problem is, the victim is seriously allergic to peanuts.Luckily, the allergic student did not eat the cookies or suffer a reaction. The student who put the cookies in the lunchbox, however, has been arrested and charged with a felony -- first-degree, wanton endangerment. It was well known that the victim suffered from a severe allergy and the guilty student was seen putting the cookies in the lunchbox.
Although the two students had no history of problems, it seems to me this is still an appropriate response. Parent Tom Fielder, whose child was not involved in the incident, agrees. "I think it was entirely appropriate ... particularly because he knew that it was a life-threatening possibility," he said. "I think the student should be dealt with in a strict manner."
Because there are a number of students at Morton who are allergic to peanuts, parents and students have been asked not to bring foods containing peanuts to school. It seems to me that the felony arrest is probably the right response to the situation.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Sabrina 4-22-2008 @ 2:08PM
I'm always appalled when I hear about kids being charged with felonies, but I have food allergic kids too and I'd be furious if someone that old (8th grade is far old enough to understand the seriousness) purposely put a dangerous food in my child's lunchbox. I don't know about this one, it illicits two completely different responses in my brain at once.
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eugene 4-22-2008 @ 2:17PM
While I agree with the felony charge against this little psychopath in the making, incidents like only serve to reinforce my opinion that there is something seriously flawed in our culture in the way parents are raising their children.
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Judy 4-22-2008 @ 4:10PM
I'm not sure I'm ready to charge this kid with a felony. Yes, he needs to understand the seriousness of what he did, but can this 13 (14 maybe) year-old child have really understood the consequences? Do we know what kind of message about allergies he was getting at home?
I've read message board discussions about peanut allergies and how they should be handled in the schools, and I've seen parents who think the kids should not be allowed in a public school if their allergies are that serious, because it shouldn't be others' responsibility to keep their own kids from eating peanuts. If this child's parents were angered at school peanut bans or had spoken out about how ridiculous allergies are (yes, there are people who don't think food allergies are real), the student might have genuinely not understood.
He should be punished, yes, he should be made aware of just what the consequences could have been. But I'm not sure that he should be charged with a felony.
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heather 4-24-2008 @ 4:38PM
Give me a break. Every normal 14 yr old knows the concequences of this. Treating kids this age like " they don't know any better" is part of the problem. My 4 yr old knows it is wrong to hit. By 13 they should definatly know it is wrong to try to kill someone. Every child at 13 in this generation knows at least 1 person with a food allergy and knows the concequences .
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