Eight years old and I sat in front of the TV watching “Sonic the Hedgehog.” My brother, in the other room, shrieked between tears when anyone tried to approach him. With hives crawling on skin and his throat closing between wheezes, he stuck out his shaking leg and allowed for 16 mm needle to be pushed into his thigh.

10… 9… 8…7… 6… 5… 4… 3… 2…  1.

We left the TV on as we headed to the hospital.

My brother, Sebastian, has spent the majority of his 19 years avoiding all types of nuts: peanuts, tree nuts, you name it. Labels such as “processed in a facility with” or “may contain” are strangers to our pantry. When you know that even invisible remnants of a nut can mean life or death for a classmate or friend of yours, I find it shocking that most of the student body makes fun and gets mad at their peers when the school decides to avoid nuts simply for having allergies.

Sadly, “The Weekly” is no exception. Over the years, we’ve published countless joke issue articles, memes, backpage jokes, and even occasionally real journalistic pieces where the community makes over generalizations about the way school deals with food allergies. Even last issue we published a meme regarding kids with allergies and democrafest. It was wrong to make that, and even more wrong to publish it.

I don’t think we need to completely rid the school of any common allergy food like nuts, dairy, gluten, etc; that would be unfair to the rest of the student body. I was never under the impression that that has ever been the intention of the administration, but when the cafeteria serves sunbutter and jelly sandwiches instead of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches students start to complain that every food has been ruined because of “allergy kids.”

Around 5.6 million children in the US have been diagnosed with a severe food allergy, roughly two students per classroom. At a certain age most children are able to read labels and manage their condition, but we are a K-12 school and have hundreds of students who have yet to learn how to read, nevertheless read labels, and truly understand their condition. Who’s to say they won’t take a bite out of their friend’s sandwich or accidentally buy something with nuts?

Imagine how many parents were put at ease when they learned our cafeteria was “nut free” or even better treats were banned from being brought into school during birthdays and other events. Sure, nothing felt better than walking into class and seeing a grocery bag filled with cupcakes and brownies in plastic containers. You didn’t even know whose birthday it was, but obviously that didn’t matter. Your teacher stopped class and your entire class could indulge on some really sugary and really good treats. Except for the kid with allergies.

Parker is a school founded on tradition and nostalgia. Even though I came in sixth grade, I still have fond memories of grabbing handfuls of candy to stash in my locker from my Big Brothers/Sisters. It’s unfortunate that we couldn’t hand our treats to our little siblings in an effort to get them to like us more, but I think it’s a very small sacrifice to make in the grand scheme of things.

Even though I’ll be graduating in a few days, I hope when I open up a copy of “The Weekly” or any other student forum allergy jokes will be a thing of the past.