AIBU to complain after my child ate poisonous items at school twice?

4 adults and 6 children?!?!?‘ wtf were they doing?!

Not knowing what the bulbs are is insane. Many bulbs (eg daffodils, prepared hyacinths) cause skin reactions in a high percentage of people. Sounds like they didn't do a proper risk assessment of the activity for all the children - and the adults.

An SEN school shoukd be taking care that garden items are non toxic. So dont plant poisonous bulbs. Etc. Raise it with the governors. They can create edible garden
Creating an edible sensory garden for our students | by Henshaws | Medium share.google/3DEl12UHc6F8qqrRy

Risk assess
Bulb planting / RHS Gardening https://share.google/eMCXn99MymYypFwEP

Safe Bulb Options

• Muscari (Grape Hyacinth): Produces lovely blue spikes in spring and is great for naturalising.
• Crocosmia: Features bright orange-red summer blooms and sword-like leaves.
• Edible Alliums: While ornamental varieties should be handled with care, true edible allium bulbs like garlic, chives, and onions are safe to grow

Surely it would take more than one mouthful for a child to eat a bulb? Or was it a really small one / did your child just ram it down before anyone could stop them? Just wondering how no one stopped them mid-eating! Surely no one should be eating during a gardening activity and proper supervision would identify eating (even if it couldn't prevent it first).

Did you miss the fact its a special school?
If its anything like my sons specisl school loads of kids will have pica and be trying to eat inedible things.

You really have no idea. It's a SEN school they should be very aware that eating non food items is very common with SEN kids. There is no excuse for the incidents happening. The fungus should have been removed, repeatedly if need be and there are various non toxic bulbs that can be used for gardening activities with the kids.

No, but it is the school’s legal and moral responsibility to take reasonable steps to prevent it.

if all the children are 1:1, then the staff will be stretched. Often there are a couple of violent children in such a class and when heightened the focus will be on keeping the whole class and adults safe, which can be complicated.

Wtf?
Why do posters like yourself who havent a clue bother to reply?

Because they're ignorant arseholes!

Oh everyone has the right to an opinion whether they have a clue or not. Just say anything, about anything.
Just make it up.

It is a school for kids with SEN who are likely to eat stuff
They should not be planting toxic bulbs when alternatives exist

I would request an early review of the EHCP and use these two incidents to push for 1:1 when DD is outside, and when doing tasks inside that use potentially toxic materials.

The schoolteachers are being totally idiotic. They shouldn’t have 4 year old SEN kids planting bulbs fgs

Yes complain - ask to see the activity risk assessment. Four adult brains should have been able to anticipate that.

I don’t even know where to start with the poisonous fungi. Our Reception class has an outdoor area fenced off from the playground - none of the kids have “access to nature”. The school needs to rethink.

Yes, ask for better supervision.
Can you investigate whether there are comfortable, decorative and fun face masks that allow for great vision and hearing but are designed to block eating?
Would they be a useful item to invent?

Have they confirmed the fungi are poisonous or have they said they can't confirm whether or not they're poisonous. Either way I would expect them to ring 999 immediately for poison control advice and then to contact you.

In the UK we do have some "bulbing" mushrooms that are poisonous but we have many more that aren't and the bulb is just part of the fruiting body and not actually the whole mushroom, theres an entire mycelial network underground. It can make it really hard to get rid of them.

They could inspect the area regularly and use fungicide but it isn't guaranteed to stop them growing, some of them are remarkably fast. It's not realistic to expect them to get 100% of the mycelial network as it's underground.

Does he have an EHCP that offers 1:1 even at unstructured times like playtime and dinner time? It sounds like he may need this putting formally in place and the school have now got 2 instances of evidence where it could have ended potentially life threatening.

That's true but I'd hate to minimise the risk of future events with survivor bias.

The chances are it is a non-poisonous bulbing/egging type of mushroom and it is the same kind both times, but there are many of our local mushrooms, especially within the amanita family that "bulb" and in their bulbous state, you can't tell if it is an edible amanita or an inedible amanita. So although the risks appear small, they're never 0.

The bulbs also look like eggs. For a lot of kids this is interesting and the adults don't necessarily know what they're looking out for.

Then we also have puffball varieties of mushroom which are edible and they also look like eggs when young or a smaller variety.

On top of that we have stinkhorn mushrooms which once they'd burst open from their bulbs, you'd be able to tell what they are due to each of their distinctive smells and shapes, but some people collect them in their egg form as a delicacy.

I just want to add this to reassure the OP that not all "bulb" mushrooms are poisonous, but it is still a risk that needs bringing forward and if the school do not have access to a mycologist every time an unidentifiable mushroom with or without a bulb emerges, they should use the information they already have as data for supporting a 1:1 at unstructured times if it is not reasonable to seclude the area or if it will impact other children to do so.

Thats not the point
Its a special schoool they know some students have pica .