School telling us to remove nut trees from community orchard

[Calling]

We are in a local voluntary group and local people planted an orchard in the grounds of a school, for the school.

Now, the school has written to say that we have to remove the nut trees because one pupil has a bad nut allergy.

There are fruit and nut trees, that the local people planted some years ago and we have put a lot of work into weeding and watering. The yield was actually for the kids and we are volunteering with the school with and nature sessions outside.

Before anyone says we are potential child killers, we do understand the importance of safety. There is a management plan in place, but the school has been asked by a parent to remove our trees.
I do feel disheartened - nobody in the school said no to nut trees originally.

What’s the safety plan in place? If there’s a way to guarantee not one nut could read the child, then possibly safe.

Totally understand both points of view though and why the parent would be worried about her son.

How sad. Seems crazy that everyone has to suffer, rather than isolating the child from the problem. How old is the child? Old enough to know not to go near the trees? How would they come into contact with the nuts?

Wouldn't it just be more sensible for the severely allergic child to not go into the orchard?

It's unfortunate that they have a severe allergy but they can't avoid all contact.

You are volunteers, right? So what's going to be involved in removing these nut trees? Either you do it yourselves or someone's going to have to pay for a tree surgeon to do it. If you do it and someone's injured, the school would be liable. Can't the children affected just be told to stay away from the trees? I'd just say no, the trees aren't your responsibility.

What sort of nut tree?
Depends what sort of allergy and whether the child can be kept away from the tree/the nuts.

Ask for written confirmation from a medical professional (with childs information removed) that this is a necessary step.

Safety plan: I was told that there is a management plan, but I have not been shown it.
I don't know the age of the kid (probably GDPR).
Yes, I am sad about it.
I don't understand why nuts on trees are a risk, because they have a soft outer case and uh, very hard shells.
I have seen no medical evidence about nut trees being a risk!

The orchard is alongside the outer fence of the playing field, so the kids go into it.

I think until you’ve been an allergy parent yourself or witnessed the effect of a severe allergic reaction it’s hard to understand these requests.
I watched a child have a horrendous anaphylactic reaction from coming into contact with a child who had eaten a snickers bar. It was on their hands and they touched the child and that was it.
Even if you isolate the child from the trees have to keep them away from all the children who had been near to them. And then why should that child miss out on the fun education and experiences that all the other children get to have. It’s unfortunate but the child’s life is way more important.
can the trees not be replanted elsewhere?

Safety plan? Does this child never leave the house? Nut trees in gardens, parks, woods, forests.

The parents need, politely, telling to fuck off.

I'd write back as the volunteer organisation stating you cannot find any evidence that tree nuts are dangerous whilst growing. Explain the cost to remove the tree and say that you will not be looking after the area anymore.

Can’t the child be kept away from the nut tree? Nut trees grow naturally and we can’t be expected to uproot them all.

The trees have to be removed by us volunteers, I can't see the school doing that or paying anyone.

I have to ensure that the trees survive and find responsible people to transport them and replant them!

It falls to me to organise it but I feel so disheartened.

It probably also has something to do with Benedicts Law. Schools must be really careful about this stuff now.

My DS is Yr4 and for the first time ever we've been told no nuts in packed lunches. This has been sent to the whole school under Benedicts Law. From what I can gather there's a child with a nit allergy joined the school and they want to remove all risk (or as much as possible).

And what if no one wants to volunteer for this particular task?

Why does it fall to you?

Refuse any part in it and hand over responsibility to the school. Make sure the village grapevine finds out who caused the area to be left.

P.s. I do think its sad for the trees but I would be terrified as a parent if my child had this allergy and I was reliant on the school to keep nuts which are on site away from him when all other kids had access.

I suppose so.
But are we all supposed to demand that all nut trees in public places are felled? Or transplanted, which is risky.

I thought schools had been told not to do that because its poor allergy management?

I'm the parent of a severely nut allergic child and to me this is as silly as asking a farmer to take his cows out of the field because of a milk allergy (which my son also has). It would probably actually pose more of a threat to disturb the trees and spread possible allergens all over the place than to just leave them where they are and get the child to exercise caution around them.

Because we look after the fruit and nut trees for the school. They like that, of course. Frankly, no-one else will.

So tell the school you're abdicating all responsibility for the area and passing it on to the school to maintains because felling healthy trees doesn't fit with the ethos of your group.

Can the volunteers just cut off the flowers or immature nuts before they ripen and take them off school grounds before they fall to ground and cause an issue?
Seems less extreme/expensive than removing trees.
Also find out which nuts the child is actually allergic to, I’ve seen schools ban peanuts and coconuts because a child was allergic to almonds and sesame seeds and they were being over-cautious. They didn’t ban seeds, so the parent had a hard time trying to convince them to stop the slew of sesame bars in lunchboxes that were causing her child frequent reactions.

You're volunteers. The school is really rude to expect you to remove trees for free. Plus presuming the trees have grown in the time they have been planted, removing them might not nearly as easy as planting them was! If the school is worry enough to pay for tree surgeons to remove the trees, they can crack on with it, if not, they just teach the child not to go near those trees!

I assume it’s to prevent other children from carrying cross contamination into the poor child who has the allergy.