A recent Gazette article discussed a finding by the U.S. Department of Justice that the Turners Falls-based Young Shakespeare Players East violated the Americans with Disabilities Act by responding inappropriately to a child with a severe nut allergy.
I’d like to address two facets of this complex issue from my perspective as the father of two children in this program. But first I’d like to say that I know many nut-allergic children and adults (one of whom had a near-fatal reaction next to me at a dinner), that I have some sense for how terrifying their predicament is, that they deserve our greatest sympathy and every possible accommodation, and that they are often unjustly denied that right.
I greatly hope that Young Shakespeare Players East and the families in disagreement with it find a way to resolve their differences so that the children in question can join the program. However, if they do not, I urge that the program will be allowed to continue in its present form. My children have participated in innumerable youth programs throughout the Valley, but Young Shakespeare Players East has been by far the best, providing intellectual and emotional growth unavailable anywhere else. Key to the program’s success, in my opinion, is the fact that it’s mostly run by the children themselves, aged 7 and up. They are actors, directors and tech crew. In just a single semester, they develop an unabridged production that runs as long as four hours. In order for this to happen, they must be given the freedom to disperse into small groups of varying composition to work apart from the hubbub created by the other groups in a multiplicity of indoor and outdoor locations. Consequently, it would be burdensome to require that the children be directly supervised at all times by an adult trained to respond to an allergic emergency.
If, despite all these circumstances, the government decides that Young Shakespeare Players East must be sanctioned, I urge it to act with moderation.
Jon Lackman
Hatfield