a peek inside the fishbowl

Anyone else have photos for the Back-to-school photo contest that are not showing up online?

Please let me know ASAP so I can do the draw. Thanks! And if you forgot, and can hurry up and upload something, like, RIGHT NOW, I can include you in the draw.

If your photos haven’t been emailed to me or aren’t showing up in Flickr by 7:30 p.m (EST) tonight, I can’t include you in the contest. I gotta draw the line somewhere! :)

Yesterday CBC reported a story (online and on the radio) about an allergy-related issue in a local grade one class.

According to the report, on the first day of school, parents were sent home a note, informing them of a number of things:

a) that there is a kid in their son/daughter’s class with severe allergies (I think they even used the term “life threatening”).

b) they must pack lunches that entirely avoid the child’s allergens: nuts, wheat, egg, and milk.

I didn’t hear the original report, but they spoke to one of the concerned parents, and trustee of the school about kids and allergies etc. Anyone catch it?

Lots of parents freaked out.  I heard the story from a neighbor. I couldn’t believe it either. Packing lunches is BAD ENOUGH ALREADY. It is alarming to think that, as the chief lunchmaker, you’re going to be packing nut-free, milk-free, egg-free, wheat-free lunches. We’re all used to packing nut-free, this is manageable, but what about the other things? No bread, no pita, no crackers, no yogurt, no pasta, no milk to drink. What does that leave exactly? Parental panic was understandable because in this case they were all thinking about packing carrot sticks and roast beef every day for the entire school year. (Now that would be an experiment. What would happen to 30 kids on the South Beach diet?)

Word on the street (and what CBC missed) is this:

Several parents approached the teacher right after the letter went home. The teacher clarified the issue. Apparently the kid’s wheat/egg/milk allergy is NOT life threatening. The teacher told the parents they were free to pack these things in their children’s lunches. But said teacher forgot to hand out another letter to clarify.

One parent – who obviously didn’t speak to the teacher – decided to go right to the media about it. For some reason, the media didn’t speak to the teacher either. The story was reported as fact, although it was largely a huge misunderstanding. Feathers are going to be flying today, I suppose.

p.s the draw for the printer is coming right up!

You’re not too late! If you have some photos that fit the “back to school” theme, do consider entering the Fishbowl photo contest. You have a great chance of winning.PLEASE NOTE: I’ve decided that I’m going to choose the winner randomly instead of judging “the best” photo. It would be too hard to choose. :)

Check out the other entrants here.