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Thursday, February 27, 2020

Lawsuit: University of Maryland fed gluten to student with celiac disease

COLLEGE PARK, Md. — A student who has celiac disease says in a lawsuit that a Maryland state university deliberately served her food containing gluten.

The lawsuit from Allegany County native Hannah Smith said the University of Maryland, College Park, violated the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 by serving her food with gluten at least three times in the span of an academic year, news outlets reported. The lawsuit was filed Feb. 20.

Smith was diagnosed as a teen with celiac disease, an autoimmune disease that can damage the body's intestinal walls and cause long-term health complications. A gluten-free diet is one way to treat the disease.

The lawsuit said Smith and her father spoke to the university about her dietary needs before committing for her to live on campus. Students who live on campus are required to buy a meal plan.

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9 comments:

Anonymous said...

My wife has Celiac disease. She occasionally eats gluten (on purpose and accidentally) and other than a headache or feeling a little blah she's fine.

Anonymous said...

For the love of God...you're in COLLEGE - not frickin' FIRST GRADE so it's YOUR RESPONSIBILITY to know what the hell you're eating! You'd think this far in life you would know what is or is not gluten free or how to look it up!

Things like this make it VERY scary to think this is - God forbid - what is roaming free in society. Flippin' PANSY ASSES.

Anonymous said...

Well, good for your wife. There are different degrees of allergy with different people.

Anonymous said...

That's all well and good, but if the food was presented to her as gluten free, and she suffered some kind of reaction, then the food she ate, in good faith, thinking it was gluten free actually wasn't. She could have suffered serious illness or harm. When you have a severe allergy or sensitivity to something, and you make choices based on that, only to find that your allergen was in the food, that is actual harm.

Anonymous said...

She specifically asked the ingredients in what was being served and they lied about it being gluten free. If it had been a more serious allergy, as in peanut, she could have died from their deception.

Anonymous said...

First off the University of Maryland does NOT SERVE food to you. As a voting adult you choose. Just another typical self made victim.

Anonymous said...

7:58 The protein gluten will not kill you. Though it might make your ugly asset fatter than you already are. You need to understand this in your "peanut" brain.

Anonymous said...

"Deliberately"??? Going to be hard to prove.

Anonymous said...

She was eating off the line despite knowing her allergy was severe? Students can literally walk into the kitchen and ask the trained allergy chefs to make them something.