We are strong advocates for Celiacs.  We are vocal.  We explain, offer colour brochures from the Canadian Celiac Association, and we are happy to answer any questions.

Back in September, we took all of our information to school, to adequately arm A’s teachers and support staff with the knowledge of how to keep him safe.  90% of the teachers came back to us not only acknowledging they understood, but that it was important.  They made us feel as though we were heard.

Fast-forward to May, and a cafeteria full of rowdy grade 7’s that can positively smell their summer vacation.  They are rambunctious, full of beans, and seriously lacking in common sense.

The Science teacher has determined they will experiment with density and mass, and to do so has employed wheat flour and water among 33 x 12-year-old’s.  A advocated beautifully for himself and insisted to the teacher, an adult, that he could not be around flour, that this was not safe for him to participate in.  He could not touch it.  He could not smell it.  (flour stays airborne for a ridiculously long period of time.) He must not actively participate.  He said it three times, and was told to stay.  So he stayed to the side, and his partner was instructed to perform said experiment.

Did I mention they were a bunch of 12-year old boys?

A stayed dutifully to the side, eventually putting his head down on the desk to rest.  His partner gleefully added flour to water, and mixed it around, tossing it from hand to hand.

Guess what happened?

Yup, in that perfect 12-year-old-face-palm-storm, A’s partner lost his grip on the flour and water mixture, the mixture went flying and landed square in A’s face.

(I couldn’t make this shit up if I tried!)

A promptly experienced a gluten attack and was sick for the remainder of the day.

I called Science Teacher and asked him to consider treating A’s gluten intolerance like a peanut allergy – while not the same thing at all,  I was grasping at straws, trying to get A to at least be taken seriously.  I was literally left with no ideas on how to better illustrate the facts to a teacher, who incidentally, had seen A ‘glutened’ twice on his watch.

Incredibly, A appears to be the only Celiac in his school.  This breaks all rules of statistics, but there it is.  And so we must work extra hard to educate.  This Fall, I will request a face-to-face meeting with all of his teachers, in order to impress upon them that this is no joke.

Science Teacher apologized, but A and I were just left shaking our heads, muttering: “He just doesn’t get it, does he?”

Of all the…..