Smith Valley School limits peanut exposure

Smith Valley School has been a virtually peanut-free campus since Sept. 26.

Students and staff have kept the legume out of the school — except for a designated eating area called “The Peanut Gallery” — to ensure that those with life-threatening peanut allergies can attend school without fearing the unpredictability of suffering severe allergic reactions.

While Smith Valley has some students and a staff member with peanut allergies, the impetus for going peanut-free came after a student with severe peanut allergies — who had suffered anaphylaxis as a result — enrolled in the school.

Anaphylaxis is a potentially life-threatening allergic reaction that occurs within minutes after an allergen exposure, according to www.mayoclinic.org. Anaphylaxis can cause airways to narrow and blood pressure to drop. Treatment involves an immediate injection of epinephrine or an emergency room visit — or both.

Peanut exposure can occur through direct contact (eating peanuts and sometimes skin contact) or cross contact — food exposed to peanuts during processing or inhalation of peanut dust or products such as peanut oil cooking spray, according to the Mayo Clinic.

Principal Laili Komenda said the impetus behind going peanut-free was to create a healthy environment where students weren’t fearful to attend school and possibly suffer allergic reactions.

Smith Valley has an enrollment of 213 students.

“Our lunchroom is an average-sized classroom so our setting was not conducive to make a peanut-free table,” Komenda said.

Komenda said the reason that students with peanut allergies aren’t asked to eat separately instead of the entire student body is because while their classmates have a choice whether or not to eat peanuts, students with allergies do not. Food allergies are also protected as a disability.

Friends can join students in The Peanut Gallery whether eating peanuts or not. Komenda said four of five students eat in The Peanut Gallery each week. The Peanut Gallery contains an important feature — a sink where students and staff wash their hands and clean the table before leaving.

Peanuts and tree nuts have also been eliminated from the school lunch program and sunflower seed butter has replaced peanut butter. The school has also utilized a program that provides free EpiPens (epinephrine injection pens) for the school.

“When the first announcement came out it said peanut-free and then after the weekend I thought about it,” Komenda said. “I can make this child safe by having a place that other kids can eat peanuts and I don’t want to make it a discipline thing where they’d have to go home if they had peanuts.”  

At first the initiative received some negative reactions from parents, but the majority of responses have been positive, according to Komenda. Students and staff have embraced the peanut-free initiative and The Peanut Gallery concept from the start Komenda said.

Komenda has communicated the reasons for the decision as well as educating the community on peanut allergies and has made materials available online at www.smithvalleyschool.org.

“Here’s the success story” Since September, the student has not missed a day of school for a peanut-related emergency,” Komenda said.

Whitefish School District also promotes peanut-free zones in the hallways and classrooms in each of its three schools and specific tables in cafeterias, according to district nurse Deanne Sramek.

“The number of students coming to schools with nut allergies is on the rise,” Sramek said.

Three years ago, peanuts and nuts were eliminated from school meals and sunflower butter replaced peanut butter.

Whitefish schools also have EpiPen lockers in strategic areas and staffers are trained in giving epinephrine injections and watching for signs of anaphylaxis.

“I’ve started an official campaign of going nut-free this year,” Sramek said. “We’ve received a positive response.”

Reporter Hilary Matheson may be reached at 758-4431 or by email at hmatheson@dailyinterlake.com.