Posted on every door of the early childhood school I subbed  for before I started my maternity position at the middle school, I asked about the signs. Most classes had serious or even life-threatening allergies. In my middle school, maternity position, I opened a white notebook of accommodations and medical conditions to find EpiPen after EpiPen, along with notes about how mom had to go on any field trips as well as instructions to immediately call 911.

The world  is shifting under us. Whether in response to environmental toxins or other horses of the apocalypse, like climate change, I submit these allergies represent a change that can no longer be explained away by “better data.”

In the meantime, this post is for parents. When they send home that list of food restrictions, please take it seriously. Even if your child has no problems, those allergies out there are real. Kids share or swap food all the time, and sometimes no adult is watching. Kids just naturally slime the area around them, too.

Eduhonesty: When in doubt, please toss suspicious items out of that lunch or snack. I keep getting trained to use that EpiPen, but the thought of plunging a big load of epinephrine into some little kid’s thigh scares me. I have not had to go there yet, but America has reached the point where some districts even require mandatory EpiPen training for subs.  Every time the nurse demonstrates that orange-capped device, I honestly cringe.