Danielle Nguyen, from Georgia, suffers from a severe nut allergy. While attending Spanish class last semester she suffered a painful allergic reaction that made it difficult for her to breath and swallow. She says her reaction was caused by a nut-scented candle burned by her Spanish teacher, Lynne Swanson.
Nguyen was treated by the school nurse, who warned Swanson that she needed to stop burning the candle because of the danger to Nguyen, reports the Daily Mail.
Throughout the rest of the semester, Nguyen continued to suffer similar allergic reactions while in Spanish class and had to visit the nurse seven times over the term.
It was only when Nguyen’s mother Shannon Baldwin-Nguyen confronted the teacher, that it emerged the e teacher had continued to light the candle but blown it out before Nguyen entered the classroom. This may have contaminated the room with nut oil.
Danielle’s mother claims the actions were malicious. “I feel that Lynn Swanson knew what she was doing. She knew it caused Danielle to have this reaction but she repeatedly burned the candle, day after day after day and knew it was harming Danielle,” she said.
Nguyen believes she failed her Spanish class because of the repeated reactions and the treatments which caused her to be drowsy when she was in class.
