Talking Allergies

ASBA to develop guidelines for school board policies for responding to anaphylaxis
As a service to school boards – in consultation with school councils, superintendents, school boards, the provincial departments of health and education and the public – the Alberta School Boards Association is developing a policy advisory to help school boards develop local policy and procedures for responding to individuals with severe allergies.

Who is on the ASBA anaphylaxis steering committee?

Michele Mulder
Alberta Home and School Councils' Association

Brian Callaghan
Canadian Rockies Regional Division No.12
College of Alberta School Superintendents

Lorraine Steele
Karen Slevinsky
Alberta Education

Representative
Alberta Health

Suzanne Lundrigan
Alberta School Boards Association

Sig Schmold
Consultant


For more information contact Sig Schmold.


Project work plan
With the view to developing an anaphylaxis policy advisory early in 2007, the steering committee proposes the following timeline:

Research issue and gather input
September/October, 2006

Circulate first draft of policy advisory to school boards
Late November, 2006

Present draft policy advisory to ASBA Board of Directors
February, 2007


Public input welcomed -- deadline October 31, 2006
The public is welcome to submit their recommendations about how school boards should respond to individuals with severe allergies to the Anaphylaxis Steering Committee before October 31, 2006. Please e-mail your submission to: anaphylaxissteeringcommittee@asba.ab.ca or provide a written submission to the Anaphylaxis Steering Committee c/o the Alberta School Boards Association 1200, 9925-109 Street; Edmonton, Alberta; T5K 2J8. Fax: 1.780.482.5659

I sent off an e-mail this morning. It feels so good to be contributing towards a solution, instead of just complaining about my problems .

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1 son allergic to eggs, peanuts, green peas, chick peas, lentils and tomatoes
(avoiding tree nuts and most other legumes too)
1 son allergic to eggs, and has outgrown peanuts
Both with many environmental allergies, asthma and eczema

We really need to push for this committee to come up with a policy as tough as Sabrina's Law. I am afraid that since the committee is made up of educators that they will write a policy that is biased towards the schools. I fear they may write a policy that says "the allergic student should manage his/her own allergies", since schools typically do not want to shoulder any liability. They believe that it is impossible to have a school that is peanut/nut free as someone might actually bring in a peanut butter sandwich and then they would liable.

This is just what the policy makers in my school district seem to think. I would also really advocate for strong-willed allergists and parents of allergic children to be on this committee.
Caroline2

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son anaphylactic to peanuts

I would love to send a reply, but I am not sure what to say. Saying that I want the same as Ontario does not sound quite good enough.

I'm not from Alberta, but I wrote a LONG e-mail. For anyone looking for ideas, I would suggest speaking from the heart. Talk about what a safe school would look like, and how to keep your child from being emotionally hurt as well (example...games at parties instead of having a junk food filled party your child cannot safely attend). Refer to your children by their real names in the letter (not PA kid like we do here ) to put a personal touch on it.

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DD age 9 1/2 -peanuts, nuts,
DD age 7 1/2 - milk, eggs, chicken, peanuts, treenuts, cats, dogs,
DS age 2 1/2
Husband- asthma, eggs, treenuts, fish, shellfish environmental
Self - penicillan, eurithromiacin, mild laytex allergy.

Here's a suggestion for a letter. Describe situations that you feel have put your child in danger, or close calls you've had at school. Perhaps you have a teacher that has given your child food without your consent, or maybe just the sheer amount of food that happens on an almost daily basis is hard for you to handle. Has your child felt left out? End the letter by saying: I hope the outcome of this committee will provide my child with the tough safety measures that Sabrina’s Law does for anaphylactic students in Ontario. My child should not have to put his life at risk just because he attends school in Alberta.

I am fortunate to live in Ontario which has the protection of Sabrina's Law. I would encourage anyone who is writing to look up the legislation to help with your letters. So many people falsely believe that Sabrina's law is about banning foods. There is in fact no mention of bans in the law. Rather there is an emphasis on risk reduction strategies which help all children with life threatening allergies and not just peanut allergies. I think that if parents write letters asking for bans then there will be resistance on the part of schools.

Each year there is an individual plan developed for each allergic child which would include emergency and preventative measures. I think this emphasis is a more reasonable approach and a safer approach for dealing with schools. The second most important part of the law is the emphasis on education. All school staff will be trained every year on anaphylaxis and how to use the epipen. Good luck with your campaign.

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13 year old daughter -- lives with life-threatening allergies to milk, tree nuts and peanuts; seasonal allergies (birch, maple, ragweed); pet allergies; asthma; and eczema
10 year old son - no allergies

Puffy and everyone,

Just wanted to let you know that a letter to the ASBA was sent Monday from Laurie Harada and Dr. Susan Waserman, representing Anaphylaxis Canada and the CSACI. It asks for a role in the policy development, and brings the new CSACI guidelines and allergysafecommunities.ca to the school board association's attention. The AAIA, Sara Shannon and a couple of local allergists have also written to the ASBA.

Kudos to Puffy, by posting this info in this forum, all these organizations and individuals found out about the ASBA's call for input, and were able to respond on very short notice.

As well, Ana Wigger, whom many of you know as the woman who has lobbied Alta's Education Minister on behalf of anaphylactic students, says that she has been offered the chance to give her input.

Now, it will be interesting to see what happens. Fingers crossed, Gwen

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Allergic to soy, peanut, shellfish, penicillin

I tried to send my input but it was returned as undeliverable . . .could they have turned off the email address already - it's only one day past the deadline! Anyway, I'll try to send via fax tomorrow from work.

I've copied my message here FYI.

As a parent of a peanut/nut/egg allergic child, I have found great comfort in the efforts that have been put forward in our school division in developing their anaphylaxis policy.

I've attached a link here for your reference.

[/url] http://www.retsd.mb.ca/site/about/policy/polmain.html

The sections of interest are:
JLCG: Anaphylaxis
JLCG-R1: Anaphylaxis Procedures
JLCG-R2: Anaphylaxis Avoidance Procedures

They have a multi-facetted approach to dealing with Anaphylaxis in the schools involving admin, staff, ALL parents, students - everyone.

I think it is excellent and can provide you with a "best practice" to see how other divisions in Canada are dealing with this issues.

I applaude you taking these steps to ensure the safety of your student body and staff and for soliciting input from those directly affected.

Warmest Regards,
Margaret Harasym
Winnipeg, MB

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adult son allergic to peanuts, most tree nuts, eggs and penicillin.

If you cannot e-mail the Anaphylaxis Steering Committee I would still encourage you to keep pressure on this committee to meet similar expectations of Sabrina's Law by sending letters to:

Minister of Education, Honourable Gene Zwozdesky (#228 Legislature Building, 10800-97 Ave., Edmonton, AB. T5K 2B6

Gene Zwozdesky orginally turned this over to the Alberta School Board Association requesting policy because he didn't think it necessary for there to be a law for this. Please keep your letters coming. I really believe this committee is biased since it is made up primarily of educators, and that the outcome will be a sort of compromise that lacks the firmness of Sabrina's Law. We really need Sabrina's Law in Alberta!!!! Please help us by keeping your letters coming!!!!

I think you are right that we need to insist that legislation (law) is implemented over this and not just policy. If one province goes for policy following Ontario being able to get a law, it is much more likely that all the other provinces will end up with policies too.

This would be the time for all the Albertans affected to get in touch with their MLA's or MP's (I used to be an Alberta girl, but I forget what they call them ), and ask them to get Sabrina's Law passed their, rather than settling. (although a Provincial policy is better than nothing, so it's great that they are doing soemthing)

We should all write and say we want Laurie and Gwen and Sara to be a part of the process.

I was called by Karen Slevinsky (a member of the Anaphylaxis Steering Committee) after I wrote a letter to the Minister of Education requesting that the Anaphylaxis Steering Committee strive to meet or exceed Sabrina's Law with their policy. I had also contacted Sig Schmold, the consultant for this committee asking why there was no one on the committee who deals with anaphylaxis in the schools. The committee has now invited two parents to join. One dealing with anaphylaxis and one who doesn't deal with anphlyaxis. (That still makes 8 that have no idea about anaphylaxis and only 1 who understands!!!). The committee has set new deadlines and is now allowing public input until December 31.

Anyone who can help us by sending letters - please do. The mandate of this committee is to simply to develop policy for dealing with anaphylaxis in the schools. What we need the mandate of this committee to be is to develop a policy that equals or exceeds that of Sabrina's Law.

You can view the new deadlines here:

www.asba.ab.ca/news_index/anaphylaxis.html

I have also posted the text of it below:

ASBA to develop guidelines for school board policies for responding to anaphylaxis
As a service to school boards – in consultation with school councils, superintendents, school boards, the provincial departments of health and education and the public – the Alberta School Boards Association is developing a policy advisory to help school boards develop local policy and procedures for responding to individuals with severe allergies.

Who is on the ASBA anaphylaxis steering committee?

Michele Mulder
Alberta Home and School Councils' Association

TBD by Alberta Home and School Councils' Association
Parent of child with anaphylaxis

TBD by Alberta Home and School Councils' Association
Parent of child who does not have anaphylaxis

Brian Callaghan
Canadian Rockies Regional Division No.12
College of Alberta School Superintendents

Lorraine Steele
Karen Slevinsky
Alberta Education

Representative
Alberta Health

Suzanne Lundrigan
Alberta School Boards Association

Sig Schmold
Consultant


For more information contact Sig Schmold.


Project work plan
With a view to developing an anaphylaxis policy advisory early in 2007, the steering committee proposes the following timeline:

Research issue and gather input
September to December, 2006

Circulate first draft of policy advisory to school boards
January/February, 2007

Present draft policy advisory to ASBA Board of Directors
March/April, 2007


Public input welcomed -- deadline December 31, 2006
The public is welcome to submit their recommendations about how school boards should respond to individuals with severe allergies to the Anaphylaxis Steering Committee before December 31, 2006. Please e-mail your submission to: anaphylaxissteeringcommittee@asba.ab.ca or provide a written submission to the Anaphylaxis Steering Committee c/o the Alberta School Boards Association 1200, 9925-109 Street; Edmonton, Alberta; T5K 2J8. Fax: 1.780.482.5659

Puffy, that's good news and thanks for the deadline update.

We'll let people know in the magazine. Gwen

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Allergic to soy, peanut, shellfish, penicillin

Is there an update from Alberta?
Caroline

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son anaphylactic to peanuts