Woman sues to get school perfume ban

FORT WAYNE, Ind., Nov. 19 (UPI) -- An Indiana mother is taking her son's high school to court in an attempt to have perfume and cologne banned because the boy is allergic.

Janice Zandi's lawsuit against the Fort Wayne Community High Schools claims it violated the Americans with Disabilities Act by refusing to ban sprayed scents from Northrop High School, where her son, J.Z., attends, ABC News reported Friday.

Zandi said her son has suffered several allergy attacks at school and had to be taken to a hospital via ambulance three times due to respiratory distress.

However, allergists contacted by ABC News said they had never heard of an allergy to sprayed scents, and particles in perfume are so small as to make allergic reactions unlikely.

"Generally we think of sprays as irritating to someone with asthma, but this is not a true allergy," said Dr. Wesley Burkes, chief of pediatric allergy and immunology at Duke University Medical Center.

Zandi said there is medical documentation of her son's reaction to the sprays and therefore it counts as a disability.