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.

Agreed. What happens for a child allergic to apples? My son is severely allergic (anaphylactic) to apples but I guess noone would remove the apple orchard.

yes this is exactly why I do try to encourage them. Had to bring peanut butter back into the house to introduce it during weaning his yournger brother. We did peanut whenever brother was at playgroup and then cleaned like a maniac afterwards.

It wouldn't matter if the child doesn't go in the orchard .. then every child that does has been around the nut trees and could still potentially endanger the said child.. the child being safe and not harmed or potential loss of life is way more important than the trees and your efforts.

We have no way of knowing what nut allergy it is. The first thing to do is find this out, not remove every nut tree from anywhere the child goes.

The school is probably thinking of future pupils too.
Sometimes people aren’t sure exactly what tree nuts they’re allergic to (to tell you really need an oral food challenge in hospital for each different nut) and have been advised to avoid nuts in general. This is because of manufacturing cross-contamination concerns too, which obviously don’t apply here.

I'd email the school saying you fully understand their concerns however, you don't have the resources to fell the trees. You can ask that they keep the child away from the orchard & say you will mark the nut trees (Big red bands tied around them) so there's no mistaking which ones they are so the child & others know not to go near them. Also explain that the risk to the child is minimal as the nuts are encased in a shell. If they insist the trees be removed then I'd Relinquish responsibility & let the school deal with it.

I guarantee if you had posted about your child and asked whether you were being unreasonable to ask for all the apple trees to be cut down, you would have been told you were unreasonable. In some people’s minds only nut allergies are serious, and everything else is less serious and/or should be the responsibility of the individual only.

Well you sound like pretty upstanding people doing stuff for your community.
If one of the children has a nut allergy it's up to their parents to keep them at a safe distance from the nut tree, simple as that.
Or are you deliberately forcing hazelnuts down the throat of a nut-allergic child? I suspect not.

Exactly. It's so completely irrational isn't it!!

If one of the children has a nut allergy it's up to their parents to keep them at a safe distance from the nut tree, simple as that.

That’s exactly what they’re trying to do by having the tree moved.

So if a child had an apple allergy would you have apple trees moved and ban apples from the school?

(My son was anaphylactic to apples so I am genuinely curious about this! It wouldn't have crossed my mind to ask school to ban them, we just taught him safe behaviours )

There are walnut trees in our local park (council maintained) right next to the children’s playground. No harm done in the 50 + years they have been there.

Anyway, it’s a classic case of ‘no good deed goes unpunished’

Were there apple trees in your son’s schoolyard though?

I think there’s a difference between children eating apples at lunch and them playing in grounds with fallen apples. The first is a more controlled setting.

There would be at this school….

I have not been shown the management plan and I don't know whether it is on specific medical advice, or what.
Anyway, I will send out a letter say we understand the concerns, etc and agree (no choice) - but that we are disappointed, were not told at the beginning, spent 100s of hours on it, need to sort out logistics, cannot do all this on our own, need to find responsible new owners to dig the trees out, transport them and dig new holes and so on. That the school can explain it to the pupils - the kids planted them and have their names on them.

Why would OP see or be involved in a management or safety plan anyway. She isnt responsible for the child.

I would send a slightly stronger letter OP and say you're disappointed and that the work will need to be done by a different agency or group. Not that that you need help, its not your responsbility. The school needs help, its their responsbility.

@likelysuspect - thanks and that is a good point about the school taking the lead, although they know nothing about the technical aspects of keeping the trees alive, preparing the roots, telling people how to plant etc etc...
I will have to draw up a list of how to do these things. Ideally if I can find a city farm or community orchard that would be good.
It is 8 trees including a tall and lovely almond tree.

Not apple trees as well - I didn't know about apple allergies. If the school wants the apple trees removed, that's it, I will walk away.

No one will ask for the apple trees to be removed because people don’t do things like this for anything other than nut allergies.

I mean…that’s because nut allergies kill 4 or 5 people in the UK every year despite these precautions being taken. I can’t find a documented case of a fatality from anaphylaxis due to an apple allergy in the UK (or elsewhere). That’s despite apples being much more widely consumed in the UK than nuts are.

Nuts are responsible for 30% - over 50% of all food-related anaphylactic deaths globally, despite more precautions being taken around them.

Any food can be dangerous for a particular individual, but there is reason for nuts being feared more than apples at a population level.

That’s incredibly frustrating but the school are bound by inclusivity laws and allergy laws have hugely ramped up this September. Teachers and leaders can be held personally liable for negligence.
It’s maddening on all accounts, but I must say a huge thank you. As a teacher and a parent, I understand that groups like yours are the beating heart of a school and a community.

I’m sure if there was a child anaphylactic to apples in this school then they would request the apple trees are taken down too. Having trees shed any allergens in an uncontrolled school area where there are possibly hundreds of children as young as 4 running around is a serious risk for the school. As many have mentioned here, some teachers and pupils do not take the risks seriously so the school would not want that liability on their hands. Teachers and other students will not have the same vigilance as allergy parents.

I think I would explain to the school that nut trees only produce nuts during a limited period of the year during which time the child in question could keep away from the area in which they are planted as their allergy is so severe.
The environmental benefits nut trees are massive and they are common in most open spaces so avoiding them would be very difficult. Teaching children to be self aware of environmental dangers is part of helping them grow into independent people.

I think I would explain to the school that nut trees only produce nuts during a limited period of the year

I’ve a feeling they might know that already!😁