Felony 'Peanut' Charge Sparks Debate

April 22, 2008— -- A recent report of a 13-year-old spiking his peanut-allergic classmate's lunch may highlight a dangerous gap in food allergy education in schools, experts say.

An eighth-grader in Lexington, Ky., was arrested Sunday on felony wanton endangerment charges for allegedly putting peanut butter cookie crumbs in the lunch box of a classmate with a severe peanut allergy.

"The contaminated lunch box could have resulted in a significant allergic reaction — potentially life-threatening, depending on the child's history," says Dr. Kathy Sheerin, of the Atlanta Allergy and Asthma Clinic, in Atlanta.

Under the Kentucky statue for wanton endangerment, a person is guilty "when, under circumstances manifesting extreme indifference to the value of human life, he wantonly engages in conduct which creates a substantial danger of death or serious physical injury to another person."

Whatever the courts decide in this case, peanut allergies are no trivial matter. Sheerin says peanut allergies are one of the most common food allergies, and by far the most fatal.

Fayette County schools spokeswoman Lisa Deffendall told the Associated Press that the boy's food allergy was well-known among the students at Morton Middle School.

But, experts say informing classmates of a food allergy doesn't necessarily mean all children will understand the risk for a deadly reaction, or refrain from using the allergy against the child.

Dr. Scott Sicherer, associate professor of pediatrics at the Jaffe Food Allergy Institute in New York City, has run workshops for teens with food allergies.

Sicherer says children may contaminate an allergic classmate's food by accident because they were unaware of the danger or they could do it out of curiosity, wanting to see the allergic reaction.

"Or a child could very well know that the person would be in danger and they'd like to really get that person," says Sicherer.

News of the Kentucky incident only reinforced food allergists' and food allergy advocates' mantra on school involvement.

"It demonstrates that having an allergy is a serous thing," says Sicherer. "One of the tenants of managing an allergy in the school setting is that bullying has to be taken seriously."