Students at schools across Prince Edward Island will no longer be allowed to bring peanut butter imitations to school.
In a recent newsletter parents of Spring Park School were informed of a ban on a product called Wow Butter available in Island stores. The soy based product tastes and smells like peanut butter. The school said this has been causing confusion and worry to parents, teachers and students.
“If there are children with life threatening allergies, parents want to feel confident they will be safe at school,” said English Language School Board’s Bob Andrews.
“We want to create a very safe environment.”
Reanna Macdonald, a mother of two Spring Park students, said she feels good about the ban.
“Neither of my daughters have a peanut allergy, but if they did I would be happy to hear these other products were banned. It’s too confusing,” she said.
Not all parents agree.
Without peanut butter in schools alternatives are a great source of protein, said a concerned parent.
“These products were specifically designed to replace peanut butter. We should be educating teachers and students about the different products so we can keep them in our schools,” he said.
“The Wow Butter comes with labels for your child’s lunch to let students and teachers know what they are eating is safe.”
Andrews said even with labels on peanut alternatives it is too difficult for teachers to supervise.
“It’s really a matter of life threatening allergies over someone finding an alternative for lunch.”
In reference to this situation, Sabrina’s law has squat to do with what can, or cannot be banned from a school. Schools can ban certain clothes (IE: T-Shirts with inappropriate slogans), cell phones, tobacco products and other things that are deemed a distraction or perceived threat to the fundamental mandate of a school, which is teaching and learning. With regard to this situation, the best example is the banning of toy guns, and there are many very realistic reproductions. Will a toy gun harm somebody? Of course not, but would you expect a high school teacher and fellow students to verify the harmlessness of each pseudo weapon? The fact is, artificial peanut butter products are made to appear like the product that can factually kill a child. To expect a teacher to spontaneously differentiate a benign from a harmful product that is designed to appear like a potentially lethal product is just not reasonable. Until the safe product is readily visible as a safe product (make it red or bright yellow) the banning of Wow Butter and similar products is more than reasonable - it is necessary.