Schools, as the second home of our children, have a duty to protect our children. Tragically, this particular in our featured story for today failed in its duty, with devasting results.
Asthma is so common we often forget that it can have fatal consequences and if the sufferer doesn’t have their inhaler with them the stress can make the symptoms of an attack even worse. That is why the death of Ryan Gibbons could have been easily avoided.
Like any other boy his age, Ryan was full of energy. He had a lot of fun riding motorbikes and hiking. But a tragic mistake by his school would put this promising life to an end.
Back on October 9, 2012, Ryan had an asthma attack during recess at his Ontario school. His inhaler was locked in the principal’s office, and he wasn’t able to get to it in time. He passed away before gaining access to the life-saving medication.
Ryan’s mother, Sandra Gibbons, had attempted to send spare inhalers for him to keep with him at school. She even tried sending a doctor’s note. But school personnel repeatedly found and confiscated the inhaler Ryan had with him. They called his mother to let her know they had taken them. This was extremely frustrating for Sandra, who was unaware that the school’s policy required all children’s inhalers to remain in the principal’s office.
The tragedy took place at Elgin County School in Straffordville, Ontario, Canada. Now Ryan’s grieving mom, Sarah, is leading a campaign to get schools to change their senseless policy of keeping essential inhalers away from asthmatic children — by law.
The bill that she wants lawmakers to pass is dubbed “Ryan’s Law,” in honor of her son’s memory. The proposed law would force schools to let kids who have a doctor’s okay carry inhalers in school, in a pocket or backpack.
Gibbons says that her son often brought a spare inhaler to school with him for exactly this reason. What if he couldn’t get to the principal’s office in time? But over and over, school officials took it away.
“I received many a phone call stating Ryan had taken an inhaler to school and they found it in his bag and would like me to come pick it up because he wasn’t even allowed to bring it home with him,” Ryan’s mom told Canada’s national TV network, the CBC. “There’s supposed to be one in the office and that’s the only one he can have. I didn’t understand why.”
Indeed, it is difficult to understand why. What possible reason could a school have for this bizarre anti-inhaler policy? In the United States, all 50 states have already passed laws permitting children to carry their inhalers in school — but even some American schools still don’t allow it.
According to one expert, schools are sometimes fearful that they could be hit with liability claims if a student incorrectly administers his or her own medication or allows another kid to share the inhaler.
“I understand these concerns, but what’s the liability in allowing a child with asthma to exercise without having access to an inhaler when a nurse may or may not even be at the school?” asks Maureen George, a nursing professor at the University of Pennsylvania.
She says that schools sometimes ban inhalers under a blanket anti-drug policy as well.
“But do prescription medications really need to be grouped with illicit drugs?” George wonders.
Watch the video below for more details:
Sources: OpposingViews, CBC
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