JEFF PEARLMAN

JEFF PEARLMAN

People are assholes

Not all people, obviously. But these people …

There’s an elementary school in Florida (where else?) that has a first grader with a life-threatening peanut allergy. To help the child, the school has placed forth the following rules for classmates:

• Wash your hands before entering the room.

• Leave your lunches outside.

That’s it. That’s all. Nothing more. Yet according to, apparently, a large number of parents at Edgewater Elementary School in Volusia County, Florida, the right of their children to a quality education is being violated—and the allergic kid needs to go elsewhere. I wish I were fibbing—these parents are, literally, picketing outside the school building. Here’s the video:

http://i.cdn.turner.com/cnn/.element/apps/cvp/3.0/swf/cnn_416x234_embed.swf?context=embed&videoId=bestoftv/2011/03/24/exp.am.intv.peanut.carroll.cnn

Look, peanut allergies suck. And, as a parent whose kids aren’t allergic (knock, knock), I get the annoyance of having to tiptoe around others. But there’s this thing called decency. And another thing called empathy. Oh, and another—compassion. I wonder how many of the picketing parents consider themselves religious. I wonder how many, back when the accessories were popular and (glub) trendy, wore WWJD bracelets.

Well, here’s the answer—Jesus would wash his hands and keep his fucking lunch box outside.