A day to day battle: Johanna Turner

Joe ColajezziA&E EditorHigh school is an extremely stressful environment that holds bumps in the road for any teen. However, senior Johanna Turner has had mountains to climb. Turner’s personal setbacks have surely challenged her own striving for a ‘normal’ high school experience. In addition to handling typical high school anxieties, Turner must contend with a potentially fatal allergy and fight for her right to stay in school.Living with a severe peanut allergy is dauting; it takes no more than the smell of any peanut product to provoke an allergic reaction that often leads to anaphylactic shock and even muscular paralysis.Surprisingly, Turner admits that peanut butter and jelly sandwiches were her preferred lunch in elementary school.Turner’s first serious reaction to peanuts occurred during the summer after fifth grade. An ordinary day at camp took a turn for the worse when she broke out in hives and her throat closed up. As she continued through middle school, puberty and hormones played a progressively more severe role in her allergy.However, she entered high school optimistic that she could keep her condition under control. Turner is careful to always remind friends of her allergy and  keeps a Epinephrine Auto-Injector (also called an EpiPen) close by at all times.Freshman year was a particularly social and normal year for Turner. It was not until her sophomore year when Turner believes she began to lose much of her immunity to peanuts and the number of her reactions increased in severity. Turner recalls one reaction in particular that was the start of an incredibly difficult battle to stay peanut-free for years to come.“I was standing outside my chemistry class when I felt my throat start to close. I walked to the nurse’s office just fine and I used my EpiPen. My chest pains got stronger and it became even harder to breath,” Turner said. An ambulance was soon called.The severity of Turner’s condition has had great strain on her academic studies as well as extra-curricular activities. Turner missed so many days of her sophomore year that she was forced to retake some of her classes the following year. Turner strayed away from too many rigorous courses her junior year, fearing she would not be able to complete the amount of work demanded with her severe reactions keeping her out of commission for weeks at a time.Before the end of the first semester of Turner’s junior year, she had a meeting with former Samo principal Dr. Hugo Pedroza and other school district officials who agreed that Turner should complete her second semester at home. She was an avid member of choir and Associated Student Body (ASB) until she was forced to put her responsibilities on hold during that homeschooled semester.When she returned to school the following semester she was able to resume her leadership role in ASB but had to drop choir to fulfill her academic requirements.While out of school, Turner tried to keep alive all the ties to her large social group but grew increasingly paranoid in any social situation.“I used to be alarmed at the crinkling noise of wrapping paper,” Turner said. The dangerous proteins in peanuts are found  in more than just the average tub of peanut butter. Products containing any of these proteins or merely produced near peanuts are enough to trigger Turner’s allergy.This isolation eventually took a toll on her.“The summer after junior year was the hardest,” Turner said. “I was kind of afraid to leave my house because I knew that was the only place I could really be safe.”Turner believes that the courage to return to school the following semester came from a reaction-free plane ride to New York.“Riding on a plane for the first time was kind of my own right of passage. I had to wear a mask the entire time, but landing in a new place and knowing that my allergy wasn’t holding me back was really amazing,” Turner said.The protocol for returning to school for a normal senior year is that Turner now has to wear a hypoallergenic mask during passing periods as well as during lunch time. Food is restricted in any classroom Turner enters.But Turner’s resilience and optimism always manages to exceed her doubts and fears. She believes that the trauma she has been through has helped sift superficiality from the friendships she values most. Turner’s close friend, senior Emily Mebane agrees.“You really have to change a part of your lifestyle when you decide you’re going to be close with someone like Johanna. You have to be extra careful of what you’re eating and who you’re eating around,” Mebane said.Mebane has helped Turner during several of her reactions. By keeping Turner calm, Mebane makes sure she doesn’t hyperventilate.“You have to be willing to do something  like that for your true friends,” Mebane said.Her mission this year — a normal senior year — has lead to cooperation with administration to help educate others about the severity of food allergies. She recently attempted to pass a school-wide ban on peanut products. While Turner admits that the ban “is not exactly realistic,” she believes that public schools should be as mindful to the needs of one with allergies as they would be with any other serious ailment.“Twenty-five years ago, schools rioted if there wasn’t wheel chair access on campus. Now, there are ramps and elevators everywhere for students with those kind of needs,” Turner said.Turner has also made numerous announcements in classrooms promoting awareness of the ingredients in the food products students bring to school.“You would be surprised how little people actually know what they’re eating,” Turner said.She believes that education is the best policy for awareness. She has also communicated with the makers of Sunbutter, a healthy, gluten- and peanut-free alternative that Turner claims is identical to peanut butter. Sunbutter and Turner have agreed on a possible school-wide coupon distribution in the near future.Turner will continue to lead Samo as a pioneer for allergy awareness. Her efforts show that while “normal” is not realistic for any teen, no mountain is too high to climb. Her courage is an example of the unrelenting teenage quest for a ‘perfect’ high school experience.jcolajezzi@thesamohi.com An interview with Johanna Turner