Hello, my name is Machel Spence and my daughter is a second-grader at Pathfinder K-8 School.

For the past week I have been working with Pathfinder to put in place a protocol of sorts for children with peanut/nut allergies. My daughter is highly allergic to peanuts and some tree nuts and every day after school on our walk home I would ask her, "Who did you sit next to at lunch and did anyone have peanut butter products?" She would answer yes at least every day and even though she knows never to touch peanut butter or other nut products the possibility of cross-contamination is always a fear for my husband and I.

My daughter's last reaction was a few months ago and it was from a single potato chip that she ate over at her friend's house. I noticed her arms and legs start to get welts and we gave her Benadryl immediately and watched her to see if her reaction got worse, it did not so an Epipen was not necessary. As you may know peanut and nut allergies can be life-threatening to children and adults and some individuals cannot even touch peanut butter without a reaction.

I approached the principal, David Dockendorf as well as the head teacher Lisa Clayton about my concerns that maybe the school was not doing enough to protect my child from contact with peanuts/nuts. I was surprised to find out there are a lot of schools that do not have a policy or protocol that they follow on these type of allergies and although these children are required to have an Epipen with the school nurse before school starts, there are still tons of peanut butter sandwiches in the lunchroom and products brought in for snacks that have nuts on them or in them.

I wanted to write to you to ask if you would be interested in putting an article in your paper about their response and how they dealt with me as a parent and my child as an allergy sufferer. I wanted other parents in our West Seattle community that have children in public schools and do not know how safe their child is at school with their peanut/nut allergies on a daily basis to know that Pathfinder responded immediately.

The principal, David Dockendorf, was very quick to respond and after their meeting was completed with the nurse and staff he sat down with me and shared his list of steps the school was going to take to make my daughter's school environment a safer one. The school nurse, Terri Helm-Remund, was also very responsive to my concerns and within days there were signs all over the school, a separate nut-free table in the lunch room for my daughter and her friends who bring nut free lunches and an article sent home to all Pathfinder parents to read asking them to avoid peanut products for snacks in the classroom as well as bake sales.

Needless to say I am very pleased with Pathfinder's quick and efficient action's and wanted to let other parents who are not going to my child's school know that if they have a child with life threatening allergies and worry there is not enough being done when they cannot watch them at school all day there are measures that can be taken to ensure their child is safer and to avoid a possible accident.

Machel Spence

West Seattle