Allergy Bullying . . . Anyone Have Anything Specific To This In Their 504 Plan?

[Cara in Boston]

Going in tomorrow to update my son's 504 plan at school.  Our first one was very casual and I want to tighten it up so it will be easier (I imagine?) when we transition to a new school soon.

 

I've added a shelter-in-place plan (after the events in Atlanta this winter) and now I want to add something about "allergy bullying".  We have not had a problem with it, (that I know of)  but I have heard stories from other parents in the same school district.  I want to make sure if he is teased about his diet or threatened somehow with gluten-containing food that the school will take it seriously and treat it as an act of bullying under their anti-bullying policy.

 

Does anyone else have something addressing this issue in their 504 plan?  How is it worded?

 

Thanks -

 

Cara

[africanqueen99]

We don't have verbiage like that in C's plan, but I brought it up at the 504 meeting (Principal, nurse, counselor and head of medical services attended) explaining that kids harming my kid is a huge deal.

 

C is a really open, super engaging 7 y/o so she's pretty open to telling kids (that want to hear) what happens when she's glutened.  When she was pretty new to this we had the peanut-allergy kid in the grade touch her winter party cookie to "see what will happen" (cookie thrown away and C held it together until she got home) and the new kid this year pushing a sandwich in her personal space to "see what will happen."  Again, she's awesome about standing up for herself and told them both to knock it off.

 

Anyway, I mentioned these cases at the meeting to put it on the radar of the school.  I also told the classroom teacher about these cases and she was going to speak with these boys.  Hasn't happened again.

 

For me, at this point, I can't see adding that in there, but our elementary is really awesome and the administration is really on top of things that concern the health of the kids.  Plus, wouldn't it already be part of their bullying policy? 

[StephanieL]

We did specifically address it in our plan. Something like "Any bullying that involves food specifically will be immediately dealt with and parents informed at that time."  I've been thinking of adding stronger wording i.e.: assault but I haven't figured that out yet.

[africanqueen99]

Does your school district include verbiage of disability in their bullying policy?

 

I feel like this is already covered for us.

 

A student shall not harass, bully, threaten, haze or intimidate others or engage in hate acts/remarks for any reason.  Threatening others for the purpose of obtaining money or anything of value (i.e., extortion) is prohibited.

 

Written, verbal or symbolic comments or actions that have the effect of criticizing or belittling another’s race, color, religion, national origin, gender, disability, personal appearance, socio-economic status or sexual orientation may be classified as hate acts/remarks and, depending upon their frequency and/or severity, may be considered serious misconduct.  A central office administrator designated by the superintendent may oversee the investigation of allegations of hate acts/remarks at the victim’s request or at the superintendent’s discretion.