Last day of school DD came home looking rather sheepish and said I ate one of these and hands GM a packet of free from wheat and gluten gingerbread men. She said she’d been given them by her teacher because it was Christmas. Only one was missing from the box.
She’s on a strict diet, no dairy, no wheat/gluten or additives blah blah list goes on because of her ASD and it causes her behavioural problems. She also has anaphylaxis and can’t have nuts. The school are aware of all of this, I’ve put it on every form possible, mentioned it in meetings etc. She has a one to one TA most of the day for her ASD and to sit with her at lunchtimes because due to her autism, she’s not aware of the severity of her allergies and could eat something she’s not supposed to.
So, as me and GM are freaking out that school have given DD food when we told them not to, GM checks the box and it says “may contain peanut or nut traces”.
Long story short I’ve gone mental and spoke to the headteacher and requested a meeting ASAP in the new school year......
I get to the meeting and before I could speak the teacher in charge of SEND instantly blames my DD she came up with multiple excuses “she stole the biscuits”, which I find hard to believe, for starters DD is a crap liar, so I’d be able to tell if she was lying. She’s yet to perfect that skill. I have a sneaking suspicion the adults are the BS-ers here.
I asked if the teacher had looked to see where the biscuits had gone but apparently teachers (form teacher so not actually teaching a lesson as such) are too busy to check when a child has stolen something. Which I find hard to believe.
Then “she asked the teacher if she could have one and the teacher said, I don’t know” truth is the teacher should have flat out said no as only a week previously GM had told her that we did not want school to provide a Christmas lunch due to allergies and we would take food to school instead (teacher kept telling GM that the school cater for other children with allergies so they could make lunch. SEND teacher says the school kitchen uses nuts so isn’t safe).
Then, SEND teacher says the biscuits were for another child with allergies, not DD, which I’m guessing is also crap because they shouldn’t be feeding any child with allergies. Then she says DD is responsible for her own safety and should read packaging, which when she has EHCP and a one to one, including lunchtime because she can’t be trusted is just laughable.
So after much arguing, the head teacher produced this blinder.... “so are nut traces the same as nuts because I don’t know. Her file says she’s allergic to nuts, not nut traces” 😱 WTAF. So then it was my fault as they weren’t aware that nut traces could cause anaphylactic shock. Now I don’t claim to be any kind of genius, but the warnings on food packaging are more than likely there because traces can kill, not just a full sized nut. There’s been countless stories of late where someone has died as a result of traces, or packaging not being labelled. This is not a new phenomenon.
Oh and after she ate the biscuit, DD slung her bag somewhere and went to the school disco so had she gone into anaphylactic shock, chances are nobody would have found her epi pen in time.
So, AIBU to expect school to not be idiots and protect the children in their care?
I’ve removed DD from school because I couldn’t trust the idiots to babysit a tamagotchi.
Just interested to hear opinions of other parents with DCs that have allergies and maybe make them aware of potential risks.