Texas school officials claimed a group of students who placed a full serving of peanuts in an allergic student’s locker as a prank are not guilty of bullying, according to a report.
Carter Mannon was 15 when he discovered peanuts among his football gear in the locker room last year, shortly after disclosing his severe allergy to the nuts to his teammates. He played on the Lake Travis High School team and was a sophomore at the time with a history of allergic reactions that called for the use of two EpiPens at a time.
Mannon would go on to break out in hives on his arm as a result of the incident. Later, he discovered video of his teammates littering his locker with peanuts was being shared among the team. The involved players missed two days of the football season and were punished by coaches with running exercises, according to Shawna Mannon, the student’s mother.
However, the teenager’s mother claimed only more harassment and bullying followed on an “almost daily” basis during a Lake Travis school board meeting on Nov. 16. The Lake Travis Independent School District confirmed to the Washington Examiner that it was only then, over a month after the incident, that any school officials began investigating Mannon’s case.
“The Texas Education Agency reviewed the incident in its entirety. At the conclusion of that review, TEA determined that the District had addressed all concerns with regard to potential bullying and food allergy compliance, and found no violations of law or policy,” the district wrote in a statement.
According to the district, the Assistant District Attorney’s Office, the Travis County Attorney’s Office, and the district police department were all consulted but ultimately found that “criminal charges were not warranted.” Mannon’s case was closed less than a month later, on Dec. 6
Mannon has subsequently switched schools, and his mother plans to take his other two siblings out of the district.
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“I felt like the school is no longer a safe place for him, mentally, physically. I didn’t trust the district anymore to keep him safe,” Shawna Mannon told People magazine.
The Texas Education Agency defines bullying as “physically harming a student, damaging a student’s property or placing a student in reasonable fear of harm to the student’s person or of damage to the student’s property; is sufficiently severe, persistent, or pervasive enough that the action or threat creates an intimidating, threatening, or abusive educational environment for a student.”
