Food throwing in schools and allergies

[SweetSakura]

Has anyone had to deal with food throwing in schools when they have a child with allergies? (Secondary and primary)
How do they deal with it /stop it happening/ discipline children who do it?

Not sure what is reasonable to expect/what to suggest/where to sign point schools for advice? I can't see anything on allergy UK /anaphylaxis UK specifically on this point ? They cover allergy bullying but this feels like more generalised food throwing that just happens to put allergic children at risk

(My son has already had one severe reaction when food was thrown at him when he was younger)

I’ve worked in a lot of schools and never experienced food throwing. Is it a regular occurrence or was it a one off that you fear will happen again?

Its happening regularly. There's a crowd of them who do it regularly and the deputy head I spoke to today didn't deny that but didn't seem to think there was anything they could do to stop it

(my older child is at the school at the moment and it had happened to her twice this term, the younger child is the child with allergies and joins the school in September)

We've also had an issue of cheese being thrown in my son's lunchbox at his current school and school haven't yet done anything about it.

Genuine question…why are you sending your DS to a school where food being thrown is quite normalised and the SLT seen resigned to it!

Can you get him on the waiting list for a different school?

This.

I've worked in schools for over 20 years, secondary initially and then primary for over 10 years. I've never known pupils to throw their food about ever.

@FairyBatman because I have only become aware of the issue when it happened to my older child and she started talking about it happening more widely.

And yes, moving schools is a consideration. But would mean going private as state spaces are very pressured at all local schools. And I also need to consider what I can expect from any school, as this teacher made me feel that I was the unreasonable one

@SweetSakura I don’t think you’re unreasonable at all for expecting the kids not to behave like animals
and the school to stamp down hard on behaviour like that.

Is your son likely to have a severe anaphyactic reaction from touching the food? if so, then make sure the school is fully aware that this is a possibility - make sure they know about that case where a child died from cheese being thrown at them. They can make sure that pupils are aware of the dangers of throwing food - the consequences also for the child that threw it and now lives with the thought that he caused the death of a child for something he thought was relatively harmless silliness. They can put the fear of God into pupils for behaving like that when there is a severely allergic child around. They should be stopping that sort of behaviour anyway, of course, but really stressing to everyone how dangerous it can be - before your child arrives - is vital. They don't have to name your child or make a big deal of it, but they could start now cracking down on the behaviour and having zero tolerance of it before September. Make sure also that the child knows where the epi pen etc is, that he has it on him if possible, that bags with it in aren't just left outside the lunch hall as some school do becasue of space, that it's not in an office that ends up locked because it's lunchhour, etc.

@BotCrossHuns yes ,he had a very serious reaction a few years ago when another child at a party threw cheesy wotsits at him. I 've made sure I have informed school of that in writing.

I also sent them details of Karanbir Cheema's awful death in school and highlighted that the coroner was clear the school should have educated the children as to the very real danger of food throwing.

But have basically been told it would be disproportionate for them to take a zero tolerance approach to food throwing.

I have forwarded the emails to the governors. But I would love to know what would be good practice in a school in terms of education and zero tolerance discipline around this, so that I have a good baseline of what push for at this school/seek at another school

Is this in mainstream school? Only place I've seen repeated for throwing is in special schools where children wouldn't be able to comprehend the risk/rule against.

Put everything in writing. Log all concerns. Ask for a written risk assessment. Go above SLT. I'm a teacher & have never known food throwing to be a regular occurrence.

Mainstream school, a high achieving one at that. That's why I am somewhat dumfounded at the moment

We've had one incidence of food throwing. Not a food that any children present were allergic too. The thrower spent the next 3 lunchtimes eating in the classroom with a teacher, then doing jobs instead of playtime.

No more food has been thrown since we went hard on the first incident.

What would be reasonable policies be, particularly around discipling repeated throwing? It sounds from what I can get from largely monosyllabic teen dd that it is mainly but not exclusively one bunch of boys.

@Greenandcabbagelooking thank you. Yes that's what I was expecting, they are kept in at lunch or similar, even the first time

Its weird because the school are totally ferocious about phone usage

This is awful, they should definitely be disciplined. DS has allergies and this sort of thing worries me. He’s somehow been in quite a few situations where foods Been thrown or someone’s jumped on something and it’s gone over him, quite a few times but it’s not been deliberate.

I think you need to be very clear about it, sounds like it’s not safe to be at school. I can’t believe they aren’t doing more!

In reality I may well be stuck with the school as it would require cooperation from my exH to move him and he has an equally cavalier attitude to allergies unfortunately.

I've emailed the governors, is there anyone else I should contact?

Didn't a child die because of something similar a few years ago? Cheese I believe. This is really bad. If the head won't do anything I'd complain to OFSTED or the governors. This is a safeguarding issue

@londonlass71 yes this lovely boy snacksafely.com/2019/05/what-we-learned-from-the-karanbir-cheema-inquest/#:~:text=1051-,Karanbir%20Cheema,Poplar%20Coroner's%20Court%20last%20week.

How scary. Can you meet with the principal and tell him to his face that your child could die fron this? And that they have a duty of care? I'd also send him this link www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-48228134

Absolutely ridiculous they're not disciplining the throwers.

I sent the deputy head a link about Karanbir Cheema's death but she still doesnt seem to get it

Wow at the school's response!

I've worked in secondary education for 15yeats and have only come across food throwing once. We (the school) came down on it like a ton of bricks due to student allergies. So: talked about how it was totally unacceptable in all assemblies, explained that it's port manners and could actually kill someone, students encouraged to tell anyone they saw doing it to stop and to tell staff if they saw it straight away, made clear that any further incidences would result in internal isolation or being reported to the police if it was thought that a child with an allergy was being targeted. Needless to say it didn't happen again.

I would email back to the school, copying in the governors and LA that there is a real risk your child could die as a result of this allergy, the schools inaction is negligent and that a student who deliberately threw food at your child could be subject to manslaughter/gbh charges by police depending on the severity of an allergic reaction.

Tbh though, if that's their reaction to something so serious I'd probably remove my child, especially if it isn't the first thing like this. Badly managed schools are a nightmare for students, staff and parents.

I’m shocked at the school’s response. I’ve taught in several schools and food throwing wouldn’t have been tolerated in any of them.

I would expect the school to follow their behaviour policy, eg demerits, detentions, isolation. Given the dangers of food throwing, tbh I’d expect them to remove the students from the lunch hall and have them finish eating in detention/isolation. If they aren’t doing that for food throwing, what other behaviours are they letting slide?

@User0ne what you described is exactly the response I would have hoped to have seen.