Texas mom pushes for better laws after son's peanut allergy prank

Photo byShawna Mannon/PEOPLE

AUSTIN, TX – One mom is speaking out after her child, who is allergic to peanuts, was intentionally exposed to the food at Lake Travis High School. Shawna Mannon tells PEOPLE exclusively about the experience that could have killed her son. 

Carter Mannon was deemed as allergic to peanuts at nine months old. “We had him sitting on the counter, and my husband was making a peanut butter sandwich right next to him. Carter reached his hand inside of the peanut butter jar and he ended up smearing it on himself,” Shawna tells PEOPLE. 

“He broke out in hives right away — it was a perfect handprint of hives. And that's when we realized, 'Oh, he must be allergic.'”

Carter’s parents took extra measures to ensure their son was not exposed to peanuts after testing confirmed his allergy. 

“His levels are off the chart,” Shawna shares. “You have this big strong kid [and] one little peanut could take him down, could kill him.”

The notion of “one little peanut” threatening Carter’s life caused Shawna to become outraged at the treatment her son received from his classmates last October. The young football player shared the reality of his allergen with his teammates only to have them expose him to peanuts. 

“They were kind of joking around about it and they said, 'But could it kill you if it touched you?' And he says, 'Yeah, it absolutely could,'” Shawna tells PEOPLE of the conversation her son had with his teammates.  “He told them, 'Yes, it could absolutely kill me.'”

Instead of taking Carter’s word on the matter, the teens decided to experiment. “The next day before the game, they went in and they had put peanuts in his locker, on his jersey and in his cleats," Shawna shares. "It was a can of peanuts that they just kind of scattered throughout his locker and put in his cleats.”

Although some kids regretted their actions immediately, a few expressed no remorse.

“One of the boys was sharing a video with the other teammates of them doing what they did," Shawna says. "A bunch of them were kind of just laughing.”

Carter’s mom took her concerns to administration at Lake Travis High School only to find the actions of her son’s teammates did not qualify as bullying by the district’s standards. 

“Under our Student Code of Conduct and Extracurricular Code of Conduct, school administrators, coaches and directors work together to review all facts and circumstances surrounding a particular event and determine appropriate disciplinary action or sanctions,” the school district shared in a statement given to PEOPLE. 

“I felt like the school is no longer a safe place for him, mentally, physically,” Shawna tells the press. “I didn't trust the district anymore to keep him safe.” 

Carter attends a different school these days. The fight for safety, however, continues. 

“We're working to get a law in place to protect kids with food allergies from attacks like this,” Shawna shares. “We also want to redefine the definition of bullying in the state of Texas,” she continues. 

“When you ask somebody, ‘Could this kill you?’ and then you just do exactly what you just asked … This is not a prank or joke,” Shawna tells PEOPLE. “I need these boys to understand that this could have killed him.”