According to Shawna, though, his new teammates – who were well aware of his peanut allergy – filled his locker with peanuts.
Carter had already experienced a prior incident at the school when he accidentally ate a contaminated cookie. On that occasion he was forced to take two doses of his EpiPen and travel to the ER.
Speaking on the severity of her son’s allergy, Shawna revealed: “His levels are off the chart. You have this big strong kid [and] one little peanut could take him down, could kill him.”
An EpiPen delivers emergency doses of epinephrine in cases of severe allergic reactions, per the Mayo Clinic.
“Anaphylaxis needs to be treated right away with an injection of epinephrine,” they write. “If it isn’t treated right away, it can be deadly.”
Carter accidentally eating a contaminated cookie was a worrying reminder of his vulnerability. What his teammates allegedly did, however, is something else entirely.
Shawna explained: “They were kind of joking around about it and they said, ‘But could it kill you if it touched you?’ And he says, ‘Yeah, it absolutely could.’ If it got in his nose, eyes, or mouth, that’s where it would go into anaphylactic shock. And so he told them, ‘Yes, it could absolutely kill me.’
“Then, the next day before the game, they went in and they had put peanuts in his locker, on his jersey, and in his cleats.
“It was a can of peanuts that they just kind of scattered throughout his locker and put in his cleats.”
Carter experienced an immediate reaction, developing hives on his arm. Incredibly, the boys involved in pulling the prank faced no discipline outside of being benched for two days, being forced to switch locker rooms, and doing extra runs at practise.
Instead, Shawna claims Carter faced backlash.
“There was a lot of verbal retaliation…,” she said. “There was one point where someone in the locker room put a peanut butter granola bar in his backpack.”
The concerned mom went to the school board to report the peanut incident. She was then told that it did not qualify as bullying.
A Lake Travis Independent School District representative explained to PEOPLE: “Under the Texas Education Code, bullying is a very specific behavior, and is defined as an act or pattern of acts that physically harms a student or materially and substantially disrupts the educational process. Upon concluding our investigation, it was determined that the legal elements of bullying were not met.”
Carter eventually moved schools.
What would you do if your child was subjected to something like this? Let us know in the comments.
