Arcadia, a small, rural town in south Florida, had some trouble back in 1987. A group of concerned parents gathered together to protest the presence of the Ray children in their elementary school. Richard, Robert and Randy Ray were brothers, hemophiliacs and AIDS patients. By the mid-1980s, most of us knew that AIDS couldn't be transmitted like the common cold, but folks in Arcadia didn't care about all that fancy, scientific, book-learning nonsense. They didn't want the Rays in their school. Period.
Locals harassed and terrorized the Ray family, up to and including the destruction of their home. Finally, the Rays left town and raised their sons, and daughter, in a more progressive community. Sarasota welcomed them with open arms.
And so here we are, over 25 years later, discussing Edgewood, Florida. Just a few hours north of Arcadia, this sleepy Central Florida town is in the news for a different kind of discrimination. Recently, parents gathered to protest the presence of a little girl. This child has a severe peanut allergy, and the parents want her out of their school. Period.
Anyone who's lived in Florida for more than a few days cannot possibly be surprised to learn that rural families aren't always models of tolerance. What makes the situation in Edgewood so disturbing is that, just as in Arcadia years ago, grown adults are attempting to bully a vulnerable family and their child. Is Sarasota listening?
In response to this young girl's allergy, Edgewood Public School's administrators asked fellow students to keep lunchboxes outside, and wash their hands and rinse the insides of their mouths after lunch. It bears mentioning that adopting these new habits would not only help a little girl stay alive, it'd also help her classmates keep their teeth from rotting before the ripe old age of 25.
But just the suggestion of a change in routine was enough to make the parents lose their minds.
What is wrong with these people? Replace the word "food allergy" with any other disability and perhaps we have an idea of what's at stake here. No one would deny an interpreter for a deaf student; or a bathroom railing for a student who cannot walk. Yet Edgewood parents believe accommodations should not be made for this first grader and, as a result, she should stay at home. They've held rallies at the school entrance with signs telling her to consider homeschooling. What these parents don't fully grasp is that a free public education doesn't just apply to able-bodied students who can easily digest anything our factory farms poop out.
A free public education is for everyone.
The school has since stopped enforcing good oral care on its students, but still has precautions in place to protect this most vulnerable pupil. Eventually, this news story will die out and the media will leave Edgewood to focus on something else related to the crazies in our state.
Still, I can't help worrying about this young girl.
Maybe she should stay at home. Maybe she should be homeschooled. Maybe she should be safe and protected until this allergy is either less threatening, something that can happen as she gets older, or until she can better protect herself.
Because otherwise, in school, her parents are putting ignorant folks in charge of their child's safety.
And if nothing else, the people of Edgewood have proven themselves ignorant.
This article appears in Apr 7-13, 2011.
