Reducing risk for students with allergies

The Seaford School District’s Anaphylaxis Committee presented its recommendations on April 21 to the Seaford school board that will help reduce the risk of contact for students with food allergies. Some of those recommendations include changes to cafeteria procedures and protocols, the elimination of food from class parties and communication about the dangers of food allergies to the community.

“This is about the safety of the entire student body,” Meredith McNamara, a Seaford parent and committee member, said. Her son Robert, a second-grade student at Harbor School, has several food allergies including a “deadly allergy to peanuts,” she said. “Nuts are air-borne and they pose a serious risk.”

At the October 2 board meeting, Superintendent Brian Conboy acknowledged the need to review school regulations. Currently, “the board policies are drawn broadly and regulations under that policy need to be more specific,” Conboy said in response to parent concern about safety and food borne allergies.

“We want this committee to also be about awareness and preparedness,” Brian Fagan, vice president of the school board added.

The committee included a cross-section of shareholders in the Seaford school community – a member of the school board, three school administrators, two teachers and two nurses as well as nine parents. Committee chairpersons were Conboy and Assistant Superintendent John Striffolino.

Between January and March the committee met on six occasions. “The hot topic was cafeteria procedures,” McNamara explained. “That’s ground zero and we all wanted to make sure we could reduce cross-contamination.”