Peabody middle school to bring nuts back into mix

PEABODY – Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches will be making a comeback at Higgins Middle School this September. After four years of being a “nut-free facility,” administration has lifted the ban.”We’re thinking about helping kids to be able to care for themselves, with our support, of course,” said Higgins Principal Melissa Matarazzo. “They’re at an appropriate age to begin taking some responsibility.”Matarazzo said the decision to make the switch had been a longtime coming. The topic had been in conversation with guidance counselors, the school’s health clinic, the Peabody Health Department, and most recently, parents of current students with the increasingly popular allergy.The group concluded that it was virtually impossible for the middle school to maintain a nut-free status when nearly 1,800 people pass through its doors each day, before, during and after school.”It’s not reasonable to assume that everyone is maintaining our expectation,” wrote Matarazzo in a note to the School Committee.Another factor in their decision was life preparation.”The high school is not nut-free,” said Matarazzo. “These are the settings we prepare students for, so we should better serve our students by coaching them to be safe in the environments they will inhabit.”She said that Health Department also recommended using an individualized reaction plan, rather than declaring the entire facility off-limits to nuts and the like.Matarazzo said that those students with the allergy will still be taken care of appropriately.”Each student who’s allergic to nuts would have an individual health plan that would delineate if we needed a nut-free table in the cafeteria,” she explained. “Or, students in the same homeroom would know not to bring in certain baked goods or nuts.”