Dear Scituate School Building Committee Members,
My name is Shea Neri, and I am a junior at Scituate High School.
For the first 15 years of my life, I had severe food allergies to all milk and dairy products. I had many reactions and anxiety-producing incidents and was frequently in the nurse’s office in elementary school to receive Benadryl for vicious hives on my thighs and arms from touching chairs and desks. Since it was not fun to get hives, I eventually stopped wearing dresses, skirts, and shorts to school. I spent three years wearing leggings almost every day.
As you plan for a new elementary school in Scituate, I urge you to consider students with food allergies and include more sinks and opportunities for hand washing in the cafeteria and classrooms. This will reduce cross-contamination and limit contact reactions that food-allergic individuals experience. I suggest at least five sinks in a trough format in the cafeteria. In addition, a sink should be in every classroom.
Melissa Engel is a 29-year-old I met about five years ago. She is the teen coordinator for Food Allergy Research and Education (FARE) and has a PhD in the psychosocial effects of food allergies. Melissa has severe allergies to milk, eggs, peanuts, tree nuts, and shellfish. When asked how food allergies impacted her elementary school experience, she said, “I’m 29, and when I was a kid, I was the only one with food allergies in my class. My mom collaborated a lot with the school, and they worked to make the classroom and school in general a safe place for me as much as they could. After lunch, everyone would wash their hands, and there were no snacks with my allergy in the classroom, so that was the only time we had to worry about washing hands for the most part. Regardless, I still had many times where I would get a contact reaction.”
I also talked to my mother, Meghan Neri, who has written a memoir called Just One Bite about her experience as a mother of two children with life-threatening food allergies. She has been a food allergy support group leader for around eight years for South Shore Allergy Families Educating (SAFE). During our discussion, she described how she helped me avoid cross-contact: “We always carried wipes, and we often had to clean surfaces. And even just think about where food might be lingering or food residue. It was challenging at school sometimes because I wasn’t there to help.”
I asked my mom if she thinks increasing the number of school sinks is a good idea: “Absolutely. I used to love going to the aquarium and seeing that they had these big long sinks where many kids could wash their hands all at the same time–I always wished there were more sinks in classrooms and that sinks were available in the cafeterias.”
Increasing the number of sinks in the new elementary school’s classrooms could also reduce the spread of germs. My family has a friend who worked with her daughter’s school to have a sink installed in her classroom, and it became an unofficial experiment. Teachers noticed the classroom with the sink had far fewer students who were sick throughout the winter. So, as my mother said during our discussion, “Let’s wash away food protein and germs. I don’t see any bad side to it.”
Installing sinks in the classrooms and cafeteria of the new elementary school will significantly benefit students with skin reactions and food allergies. Let’s keep these students safe so they feel comfortable–even if they wear shorts to school.