Utah Girl Has Violent Coughing Fit, School Refuses To Give Her Inhaler Per District Policy

A 9-year-old Utah girl who underwent a severe coughing fit at school was denied her asthma inhaler by school officials, even as she was coughing so hard that she threw up on her pants, KSTU (Salt Lake City) is reporting.

Fourth-grader Emma Gonzalez had a severe coughing fit over the weekend, landing her in the emergency room. She was given an asthma inhaler to take home and keep with her in case she ever needed it. Unfortunately, her mother, Britney Badger, failed to fill out the proper paperwork allowing her inhaler to be administered to her at her school, Columbia Elementary School in West Jordan, Utah.

That meant that when Emma had another coughing fit on Monday and needed her inhaler, school administrators would not allow her to have it due to policy. Emma wound up coughing so hard that she vomited on her clothes.

“When I get into the coughing fit, I kind of hurtle up on the ground, can’t breathe and then I start to kind of feel a little nauseous.”

Had her parents filled out the proper paperwork, Emma would have been allowed to access her inhaler whenever she needed it and instead administer it to herself.

Still, school officials insist they did the right thing in withholding her inhaler from her, according to WPMT (Harrisburg, Pennsylvania). District spokesperson Sandy Riesgraf says that district policy requires parents of children who need medicine at school — emergency or otherwise — to fill out forms, notify the school, and have the child’s name written on it.

“There could be all sorts of problems if children were just allowed to take any medication and we didn’t have that verification. Again, this is for the student’s safety.”

District officials also insist that Emma was monitored throughout her entire coughing fit, that Emma’s dad was notified, and that if things had gotten too severe, they would have called 911.

Emma’s mother, who says she plans to fill out the paperwork so that nothing like this happens again, is not impressed with the school district’s explanations.

“When a child is puking all over themselves and they can’t breathe, you know you kind of have to take action right then and there.”

Emma Gonzalez is not the only child to be denied medicine at a public school due to officials’ strict adherence to the rules at all costs. In a disturbing case out of Canada, 12-year-old Ryan Gibbons suffered an asthma attack while at school in Ontario, according to CBC News. School policy required that his asthma inhaler, along with all of the other children’s medicines, be kept locked in the principal’s office — school officials had even confiscated Ryan’s spare inhalers that he had brought to school with him.

On October 9, 2012, Ryan suffered an asthma attack at school, according to his mother. Without a spare inhaler in his pocket, and unable to walk to the principal’s office, his friends tried to carry him.

“So as he was going to the office to get his inhaler, he kind of was having a hard time and had to be carried into the office, and by the time he got there he had blacked out. To this day I really don’t know how exactly the whole day unfolded for him.”

Unfortunately, Ryan died, whereas he’d be alive today if he’d been allowed quicker access to his inhaler, says his mother.

Do you think Emma’s school was right in denying her access to her inhaler? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

[Image courtesy of: Shutterstock/Ilike, West Jordan School District]