Punishment for sharing.

Now, I could see if the teacher/administrators involved reminded him be careful about sharing because of food allergies. And let it go at that.

That, IMHO, would be the "common sense" way of handling it.

And, Amy, everything you say is common sense. Yes, that 13-year old should know about his own food allergies, should be responsible, etc.

I, also, like that he said he would do it again.

However, looking at the other side; I also wouldn't be surprised if there was something in the burrito that set of another kid's allergies then the parents of that kid might very well end up suing the school.

Several years ago, in our town, a 16-year old died from an asthma attacked. The mother tried to sue the EMTs who responded. I'd like to point out that our town is small enough to not have paid EMTs - they are all volunteers.

What happened was the mother had a new boyfriend who smoked in their house - smoking set of the kid's asthma; and the mother, by her own admission, called 911 when it was too late. But, go ahead sue someone else for your own faults!

Something like that might very well be why so many in positions of authority act stupid at times.

As I said above - the common sense method would be to remind the kids to be careful. But, do we know that some parent somewhere wouldn't hold them responsible anyway?

Yeah, so much of this is driven by liability concerns. They cancel school in Colorado these days much more often than when I was a child. I assume this is because they don't want someone suing when they try to come in and get in an accident.

It is depressing to see 13 year olds given effectively no self-responsibility, but frankly, many of their parents view them in exactly that way. In the neighborhood I grew up in, parents now routinely wait with their children for the bus to pick them up in the morning. This is a wealthy mountain housing development where the kid is more likely to be carried off by a mountain lion than a human predator. Oops, I just created another irrational fear for parents!

Was it a cold rubbery Kraft single in between two slices of cheap wheat bread?

I always took my lunch in high school--the food was inedible. In some schools they have forbidden parents from sending lunch from home.
Some things that are none of anyone's business (not even you Mrs. Obama): what I eat, what I feed my kids, if I wear a motorcycle helmet, what I read, what I drive...

So many of us died back in the good ol' days when we traded lunches and got something that killed us. Oh, wait. That didn't happen. We survived ... and learned how to horse trade with nothing but a bologna sandwich.

burrito handed to child by lunchroom staff = ok
same burrito handed to child by friend = DANGER!!

Heroin, known by a variety of street names including "H", "Horse", and "Half burrito" is nothing to fool around with.

Props to those wily school administrators for acting quickly to save a child.

You're missing the real issue here. (So I theorize)

the cheese sandwich he was given by the cafeteria.

Cheese sandwich. As in what you get if your lunch isn't paid up. So the kid who was paid up was sharing with the kid who wasn't.

That's the real problem.

"It seemed like he couldn't get a normal lunch..."

I was, at 13, likewise... gone on my bike for 5 hours at a time. And remember, kids, this was pre cell and all that stuff. My parents just assumed I would turn up to be fed. I may have had a graze or two when I got home, which they chalked up as a Valuable Life Lesson about not taking your bike over culverts.

And yet, not being a parent, when I look after my friends' kids or take them out I'm as paranoid as hell and won't take my eyes off them until they are safely in their legal guardians' custody. Go figure.

On the other hand, my ersatz nieces and nephews do get a little introduction to life when we stop off at a pub or similar so their caretaker can have a bit of red medicine out of a bottle. They get a coke. Maybe when they're 16 or so I'll relent on that.