I'm not having a go at people with allergies but I mean if your allergic to something then you would avoid it but you can't force other people to not eat it as well just because you are there.
Some of the sufferers can have "an attack" just by touching a door handle that someone who has recently handled peanuts has also touched (for an extreme example). How are they supposed to avoid that? The ban may seem silly, but it has more to do with preventing the schools falling foul of America's culture of litigation and blame (that unfortunately has spread to this side of the pond and beyond).
Blame the lawyers kids, and their frivolous ambulance chasing blame culture.
Pretty much this. My brother has peanut allergies this severe. Don't think of it as simply a door handle however, as it could be anything. "I lost my pencil...Can I borrow (aka steal lol, you know how kids are) yours?", or "can I borrow a piece of paper?" if that person had peanuts literally any time through the day then off to the hospital he goes. Besides touch, it was also just the smell, literally if you had eaten any, then simply talked with him then off he goes. It's not always just as simple as "oh don't come near me when I'm eating", since some idiot parents thought that which cost him a trip to the hospital.
Examples given throughout this thread are pitiful -> you don't see a dog ban because very few people are actually deathly allergic to dogs, most simply get watery eyes, sniffles, minor things (much how I do with cats, and I live with one). With milk, it's similar, as most people get upset stomachs and pains, but generally won't die without a large amount, making it
a lot safer (There are exceptions to this obviously.) The thing with peanut allergies however is that many people get severe reactions to them, not just minor discomforts. I know many people that are either deathly allergic, or very severely, as there was around 5 of them in my school.
So in the end, I'd rather watch people suffer not being able to eat a sandwich, then to watch my brother die. That's just my opinion however. So I fully support the ban.