Headteacher used a biscuit in Maths and tried to feed our Coeliac daughter and when told not to, laughed about it

[RLBo]

Our daughter has Coeliac Disease - (the school is well aware of this as she is hyper sensitive). She had a 1:1 Maths lesson with the Headteacher who used a non gluten free biscuit to demonstrate fractions, the head teacher broke the biscuit apart and put it in our daughters face and said 'go on eat it, it's yours' pushing the biscuit towards her. Our daughter said 'no I can't eat it, it will make me ill' to which the headteacher laughed and said 'oh I will eat it then, yum yum yum' putting crumbs all over our daughter and the desk.

I was shocked at this behaviour and made a complaint. To which the reply was; the headteacher said she had forgotten that our daughter was Coeliac and that she wasn't wrong in doing this?

How would you respond? because in my eyes, it's once again a school brushing something that is serious under the carpet and dismissing it.

Interested to know your thoughts

It's pretty unprofessional not to check whether a child has allergies before offering them food items. Unprofessional or stupid.

Say her hand is turned up on the desk, the crumbs land on her fingers and she doesn't notice them all. She then goes to eat her lunch, picking her sandwich up with the same hand. Crumbs transferred to sandwich and ingested.

Sounds ridiculously convoluted but entirely possible unfortunately.

As an aside;
> some coeliacs are so sensitive that if they use a shampoo or body cream they contains gluten, they are ill. They aren't investing the shampoo, but are still affected.
> in a bid to be more sustainable, there are products (eg lunchboxes) that are being made from materials that include gluten. Coeliac UK have tested these and found them to contaminate and cause illness to a coeliac. The person isn't ingesting the lunchbox, but are still affected.

I don't think it would kill the child. It would make her very ill though.

@Maddy70 standard procedure at our school to check allergy list if handling food stuff in a lesson.

A biscuit would not kill this child - unless her mum is drip feeding she does not have a gluten allergy she is a ceoliac (like I am) and we can’t digest gluten so it goes through our digestion systems undigested. It’s a dietary thing not an airborne thing.

We have children with dairy allergies and plan lessons accordingly so that those children can take part. Schools have a duty of care.

My daughter is Coeliac and this would concern me too.
The reactions of people on MN are also concerning - it appears people don’t care about children with this serious autoimmune disease.
A tiny piece of gluten, smaller than a crumb can make Coeliacs very ill. It will trigger a whole body autoimmune response where the body attacks its own tissues (not just in the gut).
If my daughter is glutened she is ill for 7 days and incapacitated for 4 - she is in bed with abdominal pain so bad she can’t think of anything else. She will have a severe headache and vomiting/diarrhoea.
The headteacher should at least know there are Coeliacs in school, even if she doesn’t know who they all are, and not be using gluten containing biscuits just incase. Either that or she could bother to check if she was going to maybe a child very ill by using gluten.

I'm a teacher and always ask students about allergies before I use something that could be an allergen. Even if you read the health care plans parents don't always pass information on to us. I think people are being a little dismissive with their comments that nothing bad happened and agree with the poster that said 'what if it were a nut allergy' which sums up the reason why teachers do need to be careful.

https://www.coeliac.org.uk/information-and-support/your-gluten-free-hub/home-of-gluten-free-recipes/new-to-gluten-free-cooking/cross-contamination/?&&type=rfst&set=true#cookie-widget

https://www.coeliac.org.uk/information-and-support/coeliac-disease/about-coeliac-disease/what-are-coeliac-disease-symptoms/

Fucking hell. The ignorance.

Of course teachers should think about allergies whenever using food in the classroom. Because it could kill some children. Funnily I bet everyone would agree if a teacher had used peanuts in the classroom.. well milk in food kills more children than peanuts now.

It should be an absolutely basic step not to use food unless you have checked allergies and a teacher would be rightly criticised by a coroner if they hadn't done so.

Interestingly my children's nursery always got this right, so I don't know why schools can't grasp it

I am so pleased to see this. This is how a sensible and professional teacher approaches food in the classroom

There'll be hundreds of kids in that school how do you expect a teacher to remember their dietary requirements...
Which is why you don't use food in lessons lightly. And if for some reason you feel it necessary to, you check the allergies list first. I can only assume the head doesn't usually teach and needs to brush up on her basics.

The light hearted reaction, however, suggests she doesn't take the issue seriously, which is rather more worrying. Surely it /is/ wrong in modern teaching practice to offer kids food randomly in a lesson. It's something teachers are supposed to be careful about, particularly primary school teachers which I'm assuming this is?

If the head had said to your daughter I'm so sorry, I forgot to check, and put the bloody biscuit away - then I would leave it as people do make mistakes. But the fact that she doesn't seem to think it's an issue suggests she'll do it again, and the next child may not be as careful as yours, may assume as head teacher is offering it must be okay, and make themselves ill. So I'd escalate to the next level of the complaints procedure, which is probably governors.

What on earth..? She tried to give an allergen to a child and then when she realised the kid couldn't have it she GLOATED.

She / he sounds terrible.

Although actually I would go one step further. I know someone who has prosecuted organisations where children have died due to food allergies. Often they say "I told them the ingredients, they said it was fine" but don't have any proof

Before any food activity in the classroom I would recommend a proper paper trail of consent. You give written and precise details of all the ingredients.. they give written consent that their child can participate.

@WrongSwanson yes, maybe at primary. I teach secondary where they are able to purchase food freely in the canteen etc. I would expect secondary aged children with no SEN to be able to make the judgement for themselves.

This is awful.

kids don’t need food to learn that’s for puppies

food allergies are not rare and it’s needlessly risky to use food and a teacher should refer to care plans if doing risky things

I wonder if she would be happy with bright coloured cleaning fluid being used to demonstrate fluid measurements after all no one would drink any so ….😡

Families without unpleasant / risky allergies to manage might not understand but I’m sure they would expect appropriate care from responsible adults for their children and this is not that.

You are not correct. Coeliac is an autoimmune disease and the body has an autoimmune response (it attacks itself) when it encounters gluten. Gluten is damaging to the intestines for someone with Coeliac.

The body absolutely can react to a crumb or to any amount of gluten depending on the person.

It is not at all the same as gluten intolerance.

This. And my daughter has coeliac disease too.

It's not just gluten, allergies are very common now. No teacher should be encouraging young children to eat food that they don't know is safe. They don't have to remember each kids' allergen but they can remember the process.

The teacher sounds idiotic.

@Iwillnotdancewiththedevil can I ask about the lunchboxes etc made with gluten products please? Dd is Coeliac

While I think the first part was a mistake and understandable that she may have forgotten, her reaction once she knew was not okay. She should have apologised profusely and removed the biscuit from your daughter’s vicinity.

Generally, complaints about the head go to the Chair of Governors. I don’t think she should be sacked but the reply you received was inadequate.

If a teacher is doing a 1.2.1 lesson with a student and plans to use food in the lesson, then yes, that teacher should check if there are any allergens or intolerances or any religious reasons certain foods shouldn't be used.

If a teacher tried to shove a bit of ham pizza into a Muslim kids face, then rightly so, the family would be livid. Here is a situation where the food item will actually make the child ill.

I'm annoyed that the first few posts have mocked you for this. So much so I've not even made it to the bottom of the first oage before posting.

It's pretty unprofessional not to check whether a child has allergies before offering them food items. Unprofessional or stupid.

The HTs responses first to the child and then to the OP were certainly unprofessional. She should have apologised, not laughed about it.

I would not have acted like the headteacher did but some teachers are strange.

Theres is really nothing you can do. It is just unfortunate that your headteacher is like that.