What will school actually be able to do about this?

[NotGettingRidOfPetsPlease]

DC aged 8 Y4, new pupil joining the class.

The child is so allergic to cats and dogs fur that they have been hospitalised with it according to the mum and they can’t even put up with a small amount of fur on someone on the other side of the classroom, this is apparently the reason they left the last school because of the schools lack of doing anything about it – they live on our street and I gave school permission for my details to be passed on.

The mum is obviously very worried about their DC starting a new school and class and asked me if I know about pets within the class.

I have pets, as does DCs dad. DC has SN, and the animals in both homes are brilliant at helping to regulate emotions and also with their social skills as we do dog parties and obedience training.

I know the teacher has a couple of pets, and of DCs immediate group of friends (6 DC) I only know one without either a cat or dog or both. Then in the wider class I know around 50% have pets, its just the way it is.

The mum of the DC says they left the last school because the Headteacher “refused to keep their DC safe when in class” she said she expected her DC to be in a class with only DC who didn’t have pets and they couldn’t guarantee this so they changed schools.

Apparently they’ve had assurances from the HT that their DC will be safe in class.

The mum doesn’t know we have pets and has not met my DC yet as DC has been with their dad for the last week (home now).

Bar asking for clean unpethaired uniform and asking us to lint roller/change the uniform if it does come into contact with a pet, I don’t see what else the HT can expect. Unless she’s expecting 14/15 families (possibly more due to separated parents) plus the teacher to rehome their animals? Which I don’t think she would ask anyway.

I’m worrying about this though, I don’t want my DC to feel pressured to get rid of their pet due to their classmate – which they would ask of me/ExH due to their SN, they love everyone and wouldn’t want someone to suffer.

So what else can the parent expect the HT to do? And do I need to be worried that I might be expected to get rid of our dog?

Plus it wouldn’t only be the children in the class that would need to be pet free. Any staff that could come into contact with the class would have to be as well…

So the teacher, any TAs, any teaching staff that do shared activities, all of the dinner staff, any playground staff, possibly the office staff, whoever the first aider is, visiting teachers such as PE or music…

it’s simply not feasible.

If they can't even be on the other side of a large room with someone with a cat hair on their jumper for fear of being hospitalised, then they will struggle to be in any communal space at all, ever.

You can not stop others from having a normal life. Teachers, visitors, other children.

A reasonable adjustments is no pets in the building or on the school site. However, this would not trump a child or parents that needs a guide dog.

It just wouldn’t happen, there’s no way they could enforce this. Even specifying clean uniform each morning that has t gone near pets is too much and people wouldn’t be able to abide by it.

The Head can't tell you to get rid of your pets. I suppose they could request it if the parents wanted it, but they still can't guarantee that there will be no pet hairs in school as per my pp. So asking a class of children to get rid of their pets would only get rid of one potential allergy source in the whole school. They'd have to ban everyone who visited the school site from owning or going near a pet and that just wouldn't work.

So this child will never take a bus, a train, a plane, a taxi, a ferry. Will never go to a shop, a restaurant, a theme park, a museum, a church (or other place of worship), a theatre, a cinema, a hotel, a zoo, a farm. Later in life won’t go to a pub, a club, a festival, a gym. Because there will always be someone at these places who has been in contact with an animal.

Either she is over-stating the severity of the allergy or the child will need to spend his whole life in a plastic bubble.

So is this child starting a new school tomorrow where half the class have pets but the Mum thinks her child is going into the only class in the country where not one child has a pet?

When she specifically asked you about pets in the class, what did you say? Wouldn’t that have been the time to tell her that you do have pets?

No special school could either. Like OP, many parents of kids with additional needs have pets/ access animals precisely because their kids have additional needs.

The only option for this DC would be EOTAS/ hospital school type environment that could be very closely controlled.

@MelchiorsMistress I just said I didn't really know as theres 3 classes per year and they've been mixed up every year apart from during Covid, so I don't know everyones parents, 50% is my best guess but it could be a lot more so I just said I didn't know.

No school can accommodate her demands.

Forgive my ignorance but is pet hair usually an anaphylaxis issue or is it more that child on the other side of the room could cause streaming eyes etc?

If it really is that serious, how can the child ever go out in public?

This is so utterly bonkers.

No school could guarantee there would be no pet hair risk. They absolutely couldn't tell people to get rid of pets!

If there are 3 classes in the year group, is it possible the head is planning to shuffle pupils around to create a class group which is non pet owners only? That's the only solution I can imagine, but it's terribly unfair on kids who don't want to move class. Plus doesn't eliminate the risk of someone in that class getting a pet.

Did she ask you online or in person?

If her child was that allergic and she was chatting to you in person then “do you have pets?” would have been her first question.

with that level of severity the child wouldn’t go anywhere…

Or the kid sitting next to somebody different in assembly or the lunch hall or the playground. The whole school, including visitors would have to be pet-free.

I suspect the mum is an interesting character.

I wouldn’t give it another thought. The allergy nurse will liaise with school and come up with a plan. Which will be a sensible plan as pet hair obviously can’t be eliminated from the environment. Many schools have a teacher bringing in their pet ‘therapy’ dog! Cat and dog allergy is a different allergy so whilst it’s possible they have both it makes me a bit more sceptical

In my experience (of teaching many a nut allergic child) they don’t make high schools nut free. There is literally no way to police it in a secondary school; especially where kids are allowed off-site at lunchtimes. One girl in particular (who I knew really well so she openly told me this info) used to carry disinfectant wipes and wipe down surfaces before she ate. She had anaphylaxis several times but never in school, fortunately!

@YetMoreNewBeginnings Via whatsapp, I did say in my OP I gave school permission to pass on my details, they called me just before they broke up for Easter and said a new child was joining who lived near to me and could they pass on my number, I was totally fine with it but I'm sure if I'd said no that would have been fine to.

Not only that, it’s perfectly okay for any parent not to actually tell the school if they have a pet or not.

I expect this parent has misunderstood what the head teacher said or is just lying. If the child is that allergic, they won’t ever be able to leave the house.

I bet the last school were very pleased she moved on.

Of course the school can't do anything. Schools can't even do anything, realistically, about stuff like nut allergies. You can ask that staff and students don't bring in nuts, but what are you going to do in a large school - check a thousand lunch boxes? All you can do is have epipens on hand.

Tbh whatever measures were recommended by their medical team would have to be followed by the last headteacher. So I presume these are decided by mum (which may be understandable if severely allergic but doesn’t mean they are sensible)

Even Allergy UK don't ask for/recommend nut free schools

Ah sorry, I missed that.

That’s actually quite poor form from the school when it sounds like the mother has potential to be a pain tbh.

I would imagine that the head meant things like staff trained in epipen usage and making sure the child sits next to kids who don’t have pets. Unfortunately if she’s asked you directly about pets you’ll have to respond and say you have them, even if you don’t talk about the rest of the class.