As we reported last month, Carter Mannon, a Lake Travis High School football player with a severe peanut allergy, was intentionally exposed to peanuts by his teammates.
Friday night, Carter’s mother, Shawna Mannon, spoke to CBS Austin about the incident. “They might as well have loaded a gun and put it to his head because this is a fatal thing for my child,” she said.
On a night in October before a varsity football game, Carter shared his allergy to peanuts with his teammates.
“The gist of it was them throwing out several scenarios, ‘Could this kill you?’ Carter responded with, ‘Yes, it absolutely could kill me,’” Ms Mannon said.
Ms Mannon says that hours before his game, his teammates began flicking peanuts at him. When he opened his locker to suit up for the game, Carter discovered peanuts had been spread over his locker, uniform, and cleats.
Carter immediately broke out in hives which could have progressed to full-blown anaphylaxis had he not known how to respond. Anaphylaxis is a serious, life-threatening reaction to a food, drug, insect venom or environmental substance.
“They put this kid in a situation beyond his control, where he was exposed to something that could’ve killed him, and it was done deliberately and maliciously, so that needs to be called out for what it is – attempted murder. At the very least, this is bullying,” said an allergist with a specialty in food allergies with children at Austin Family Allergy & Asthma, Dr. Allen Lieberman.
CBS Austin reached out to the Assistant DA’s Office for an update, and received the following reply:
No criminal case can proceed unless our office receives a referral from law enforcement. There is currently no pending case in the office of the District Attorney.
Ms Mannon said was told by the Lake Travis ISD Police Department that no criminal charges would be filed against the students involved and, as far as she’s aware, the students were only benched for two games.
“If you’re caught with a vape in your car or on your person, it’s an automatic 30-day suspension,” said Ms Mannon. “When someone tries to harm your child, at the least, I would think that that’s a good place to start.”
See the CBS Austin news report in it’s entirety here:
