A Washington State appeals court ruled March 9 that Spokane School District No. 81 may continue to withhold from a local newspaper information about the death five years ago of a child known by the district to be allergic to peanuts who was offered a sack lunch containing peanut butter sandwiches and cookies on a school field trip.

When notified of the child’s death from anaphylactic shock during the field trip, the school district, in anticipation of a "wrongful death" lawsuit, immediately contacted its private attorneys, who hired a retired policeman to investigate the death.

In its March 9, 2006, ruling, the appeals court held that because the district’s attorneys were responsible for the investigation, the resulting information falls under attorney-client privilege, and the school district is not obliged to give the findings to The Spokesman-Review, the newspaper that has requested records of the investigation.

As part of its opinion, the appeals court outlined what is known about the death of 9-year-old Nathan Walters in May 2001. The court wrote that:

"A child died from an acute allergic reaction to peanuts while on a field trip with his elementary school class. His medical condition was well known to the District’s food staff, the boy’s teacher, and the organizers of the field trip, including two school nurses and several parent volunteers. Nevertheless, only peanut-laden snack lunches were provided. The child reported that he did not feel well after tasting a peanut-based cookie. The chaperones did not want to curtail the activities for the other children. So they put the sick child in the school bus to wait. His condition became acute and he was finally taken to a hospital by car. He received an epinephrine injection for the first time while on the way. The response was too late and the child died."

Washington State has a public disclosure law that requires a government agency to release to members of the public who request it "any writing containing information relating to the conduct of government," but the law makes an exemption for records that are "attorney work products." The details of the investigation into Nathan’s death were an attorney work product, the court decided, since the investigation was conducted under supervision of the school district’s attorneys.

The March 9 decision in the Washington State Court of Appeals, Division III, was Cody Soter et al. v. Cowles Publishing Company.

See also: School Health Issues: Food Allergies at http://www.healthinschools.org/sh/sissues.asp.