Girl Hospitalized After Attack with Cracker
 

Girl Hospitalized After Attack with Cracker
Dec 20, 2005

A seven-year-old girl was hospitalized for two days after a schoolmate allegedly attacked her with a snack.

Arionna Lunceford spent two days in a St. Louis hospital after a schoolmate rubbed a peanut-butter cracker on her face and dribbled crumbs in her hair while on the school bus ride home. The assault was allegedly part of the boy’s hazing of the girl for her peanut allergies. Lunceford suffers from extreme peanut allergies, and the assault left her so weak she collapsed shortly after leaving the bus.

Lunceford has been released from the hospital. Charges against the alleged cracker-brandiser have yet to be filed.

My son sometimes threatens my daughter with this. I told him if he ever does it, he's dead.

Am I a horrible person if I find this really funny? I mean, it takes some thought to do this instead of just throwing spitballs.

If there wouldn't have been a big deal made of her allergy so everyone knew she had it, she would have been fine. I think that's the lesson here.

Serious Question
 

Has anyone ever been on a plane and sat near anyone with a severe peanut allergy? I mean, what do they do when they start giving out bags of peanuts to everyone? Do these people simply not fly on certain airlines? I've heard stories of kids in the lunchroom having to be separated from PB&J sandwich eaters...what do they do on enclosed airplanes?

If I was that little girls parents, I'd have that kid in juvie. If I was the little boys parents, yeah, he would be dead. What a sick sadistic little kid to do something like that. He'll probably end up a serial rapist or something when he grows up.

A few weeks ago, I heard on the radio about a case where a teenage couple was making out. The boy had eaten peanut butter a little while before they made out. He didn't know she had severe peanut allergy and she didn't know he had eaten peanut butter. She has an allergic reaction which I'm guessing is from whatever peanut butter was left in his mouth after eating some. She died. The police were going to charge him with something although I can't remember with what.

I think what they should charge him with is failure to brush his teeth after eating peanut butter and then kissing someone. Ew.

Anyhow, I'm just surprised that some people are so allergic that making out with someone who had just eaten peanut butter could kill them.

YES you are a horrible person.

Just kidding ;), but what happened to this girl isn't funny. Peanut allergies are really serious and potentially deadly. The boys who did this either don't understand how serious this allergy is or they are really vicious.

ShaedyKD: my mother is allergic to peanuts, almonds, coconuts, etc. When they handed out peanuts on a plane, she would excuse herself to the restroom for about 20 minutes until people were finished. She carries benedryl and an epi-pen just in case she is exposed.

When you think about it, though, what a sadistic little bastard this boy is. To actually rub a peanut butter cracker into someone's face?

I mean, Mr. KR and I do that but that's only during playtime.

Hahaha, you're funny KR!

ZTA- I heard the boyfriend had eaten the PB sandwich 2 days earlier before making out with the girl. That's really sad.

PnC- Thanks, I always wondered about that!

I'm guessing that the boy didn't think the allergy was as bad as it is, and like I said, if the parents or child or whoever wouldn't have made a big deal out of it he would have never done it. It's on the same level as asking a kid whose parents are divorced why your daddy didn't love you because he left. And that's been going on for YEARS.

Little kids are mean jerks - that's not exactly a news flash.

But the parents have to make a big deal out of it. Other kids in the class have to know the danger of exposing this girl to peanuts.

And no, it's not on the same level as asking why your daddy didn't love you because he left. That hurts your feelings, but it doesn't risk landing you in the hospital or worse.

Little kids can be jerks, but this goes way beyond that. As the parent of young kids, I feel quite sure this kid had been told how exposure to peanuts can make this girl seriously ill. (My son can tell us which kids in his class have peanut or lactose allergies -- there's one of each. He doesn't make fun of them, he understands that peanuts or milk can make those kids sick and he's glad he's not allergic.) This kid isn't just a jerk, he's seriously mean.

It's up to the kid with the allergy to stay away from dangerous foods, not the rest of the class to "protect" her. If she's old enough to know her school bus number, she's old enough to stay away from peanuts. What's she going to do when she grows up and wants to go to a baseball game? Make people around her get rid of peanuts or call the ballpark to tell them not to sell them?

To reiterate, I'd like to know how much of a deal was made out of this - if the teacher went on and on about how they HAVE to be considerate, if the parents are hovering over her every minute, if the kids are no longer allowed to carry peanut butter just because of this girl, then I'm not surprised she was harassed. Don't set your child up to be the victim.

I'm not doubting food allergies (two of my coworkers have severe ones) but when something doubles by 50% in a year, I'm calling Munchausen by proxy in at least SOME of the cases.

Allergies like this are serious stuff.

My husband was strongly allergic to cats and dogs, to the point where he was unable to breathe after 5 minutes in a house where a cat lived, even if the cat was not present and the room had been cleaned. (I say "was" because he's been going for allergy shots and is much more tolerant of his allergens now.)

Peanut allergies can be similar in their intensity. People can and do end up in the hospital; people can and do end up dead.

This boy deliberately hurt this little girl. She could have died. He deserves some form of punishment.

Although there's an interesting case to be made that these allergies are getting worse with time, and that lack of exposure is one reason . . .

There was a whole story on them in last week's people.

I agree. But there's a difference between protecting her and being appropriately considerate around her. And responsibility to stay away from dangerous foods would seem to be a moot point when someone is smearing peanut butter on your face and dropping crackers with peanut butter on your hair.

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To reiterate, I'd like to know how much of a deal was made out of this - if the teacher went on and on about how they HAVE to be considerate, if the parents are hovering over her every minute, if the kids are no longer allowed to carry peanut butter just because of this girl, then I'm not surprised she was harassed. Don't set your child up to be the victim.

Given that the kid had peanut butter crackers on him, I'm assuming the girl didn't keep others from eating peanut butter. I agree with don't set your child up to be the victim, but even so that doesn't excuse the boy's completely unacceptable behavior.

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but when something doubles by 50% in a year, I'm calling Munchausen by proxy in at least SOME of the cases.

I'll agree, and I'll also say I suspect that there are some other things going on with the increase in allergies, including what KSig RC suggests.