Bullying and Food Allergies

I stumbled upon this disturbing story on the ABC site this morning:

Bullies Go Nuts With Allergic Kids
Peanut Butter and Deadly Taunts
A Combination of Bullying and Peanut Allergies May Put Some Kids in the ER

Late last spring, 14-year-old Sarah VanEssendelft of Mastic, N.Y., experienced bullying worthy of a teen movie.

"There was a group of five girls ... and they decided they didn't want me sitting at their lunch table anymore," said VanEssendelft. To get her to leave, they all brought in peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

For VanEssendelft, it might as well have been arsenic.

Read More

I think this falls into the 'allergic parents worst fear' category.

How did children become so mean? How can we educate our kids and make them more compassionate?

Between this, and reading about Andrew Smith, my heart is sunk this morning.