Oct 18, 2018, Marshfield (MA) Local Wicked Handover [MA]: Hanover schools help create allergy-safe zone http://hanover.wickedlocal.com/news/20181018/hanover-schools-help-create-allergy-safe-zone The number of students with medical conditions in Hanover schools has mostly plateaued over the past two years with the only major change coming from students with neurological conditions, which increased from 40 in the previous school year to 57 in the current school year. The number of students with food allergies, latex allergies, cardiac issues, celiac disease, type 1 diabetes, seizure disorders and asthma are nearly the same, according to Hanover Schools Coordinator of Health Services Patricia Smith. “We’ve been dealing with life-threatening food allergies for over a decade now in very large numbers,” said Smith. … The school does not purchase any food that includes peanuts or tree nuts and there are peanut-free tables in the lunch room. Smith said students are quite aware of their fellow students’ allergies, and nurses go into classrooms to teach students tips such as not sharing food. Training for all school staff members began a year-and-a-half ago that addresses the “social and emotional piece” of food allergies, according to Smith. “With such a large number of kids being affected by it, I think that the kids really just grew up knowing about it and being very aware,” she said. … Middle school nurse Joelle Casey developed a program where students with food allergies are scheduled to come into her office four times each year to learn about food allergies and anaphylactic shock. … By the time they finish the eighth grade, they are at the point where they can carry their own EpiPen and read their own food labels…. School nurses had 46,987 individual events with students in the previous school year with 2,301 students seeing the nurse at least once during the year and 92.5 percent of students returned to class after seeing the nurse. …
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Childhood Lost
Children today are noticeably different from previous generations, and the proof is in the news coverage we see every day. This site shows you what’s happening in schools around the world. Children are increasingly disabled and chronically ill, and the education system has to accommodate them. Things we've long associated with autism, like sensory issues, repetitive behaviors, anxiety and lack of social skills, are now problems affecting mainstream students. Blame is predictably placed on bad parenting (otherwise known as trauma from home).
Addressing mental health needs is as important as academics for modern educators. This is an unrecognized disaster. The stories here are about children who can’t learn or behave like children have always been expected to. What childhood has become is a chilling portent for the future of mankind.
Anne Dachel, Media editor, Age of Autism
http://www.ageofautism.com/media/
(John Dachel, Tech. assist.)
What will happen in another 4 years? How can we go on like this? This is a national (and international) problem of monumental proportions. We have an entire new class of children who cannot be accommodated by the system: many are manifestly neurologically impaired. Meanwhile, the government and the medical profession sleep on regardless.
John Stone,
UK media editor, Age of Autism
The generation of American children born after 1990 are arguably the sickest generation in the history of our country.
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
It seemed to me that with rising autism prevalence, you’d also see rising autism costs to society, and it turns out, the costs are catastrophic.
They calculated that in 2015 autism cost the United States $268 billion and they projected that if autism continues at its current rate, we’re looking at one trillion dollars a year in autism costs by 2025, so within five years.
Toby Rogers, PhD, Political economist
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