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A Hamilton, Ont., mother has filed a human rights complaint against her daughter’s elementary school, claiming it discriminated against the six-year-old for failing to accommodate her life-threatening allergy to eggs and dairy.

The case, which seeks to ban milk products and eggs from her daughter’s school, comes at a tense time for parents and school boards struggling to meet the safety needs of some students without putting out the rest, and as the Ontario Human Rights Code expands to include “invisible” disabilities.

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Last September, Lynne Glover pulled her daughter, Elodie, out of Grade 1 at Holy Name of Jesus Catholic Elementary School after more than two years of trying to work with staff on a strategy that would keep allergens away from her daughter.

While she was assured the school would do everything it took to keep Elodie safe, the school continued to run its milk and snack program, which handed out puddings, yogurts and cheese, and hold bake sales and pizza days. She was excluded from many a fun day and BBQ. While students ate chocolates on Valentine’s Day, Elodie’s cards went straight into recycling for fear of contamination. Elodie was also “segregated” at lunch and snack time in kindergarten, and put at risk in Grade 1 when she had to sit at a separate table in the classroom while her classmates ate their cheese sandwiches and drank their milk. When Elodie came home from school one day with watery eyes and shortness of breath, Ms. Glover said it was because her daughter’s teacher had been eating buttered popcorn.