| Presto | 11-22-2012 01:29 PM |
Parent tries to have oak trees removed. Because allergies.
:facepalm: Quote:
Mother’s fight to banish acorns from schoolyard goes too far: critics | Canada | News | National Post
One parent’s bid to remove four oak trees from a park straddling her acorn-allergic daughter’s elementary schoolyard has generated fresh debate over what lengths authorities should go to eliminate childhood risks, and when the line between reasonable accommodation and overreaction is crossed.
Donna Giustizia told Vaughan, Ont., city council that the saplings dropping tree nuts onto school property pose a threat to young students with anaphylaxis-inducing allergies and are infringing on their right to a nut-free space.
But the request is being met with broad skepticism, as city councillors are forced to mull the tricky business of altogether removing something that might be a risk for a small segment of the population.
“This is ridiculous on too many levels to even engage,” said Nicholas Christakis, a professor of medical sociology at Harvard Medical School and critic of nut policies in schools.
“My feelings are that we cannot childproof the whole world, we have to world-proof our children,” added Lenore Skenazy, the New York-based author of Free Range Parenting. “If it is dangerous for some kids to encounter an acorn, those kids have to be taught not to touch them, because there are trees all over, not just near the school. The best way to keep them safe is to train them to take care of themselves, not to cut down all the trees they may ever walk under anywhere.”
University of Waterloo researcher Nancy Fenton, who is currently studying how young people with anaphylaxis navigate a social sphere that is not always so understanding and accommodating to their allergies, says it’s a “fraught conversation” when you start taking away potential risks.
Vaughan city councillor Sandra Yeung Racco worries that the removal of the trees would set a dangerous precedent in her community.
“For as many people that may be allergic to acorns, I’m sure there’s a lot of people that are allergic to bees. What are we going to do about that? Are we going to exterminate all the bees?” she said. “We can’t. I am trying to be sensitive, but at the same time we have a responsibility to make common sense a priority. And I don’t believe this is something that should really be under our jurisdiction.”
But to Ms. Giustizia, who serves as the chair of the allergy committee at St. Stephen Catholic Elementary School, where her youngest daughter (who has an anaphylactic peanut and tree nut allergy) still attends Grade 8, it’s a matter of respecting accommodations for children with invisible disabilities assured under the Ontario Human Rights Code.
“The problem is that people don’t understand a) that it’s a hidden disability and b) that in Ontario and in Canada there’s an ultimate duty to accommodate,” she said in an interview with the Post on Tuesday. “People don’t understand that — they think it’s one crazy parent bubblewrapping their kid.”
Last month, she said, the vice-principal of St. Stephen called her to say four saplings in a city-owned walkway connecting the Catholic school with a public elementary school were littering acorns onto school property and that custodians had been picking them up. Ms. Giustizia said the vice-principal asked if she would call the city to see about them being removed (the York Catholic District School Board said Ms. Giustizia called the city on her own accord). Ms. Giustizia was thanked via email by the vice-principal for her work in lobbying the city. In the meantime, the school — which Ms. Giustizia says has at least 40 anaphylactic students out of around 860 — had been making announcements over the PA system, telling students not pick up the nuts and bring them into the school.
The trees are closest to a playground where the primary students play, Ms. Giustizia said, and while the outside of the acorns themselves don’t pose a risk, the meat of the nut, if crushed and ingested, could trigger anaphylaxis.
“The problem being, a 4-year-old can’t decipher that,” she said. ‘‘The school is nut free. I provided letters to the city from children who have anaphylaxis at our school where their doctors have specifically stated ‘because of the uncertainty of tree nuts and the evolution of anaphylaxis, this child is to stay away from all nuts of any kind.’”
Ms. Giustizia’s city councillor, Tony Carella, said he’s sympathetic to her concerns and is keenly aware that there is a greater chance of a lawsuit now that the concern has been raised, should the acorns actually trigger an allergic reaction in a student. Council has ordered a report on whether to remove the trees —it’s expected by the end of the year.
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Of course, due to backlash to her, more than reasonable, request, she has dropped it: Quote:
Mother’s fight to banish acorns from schoolyard goes too far: critics | Canada | News | National Post
A mother and allergy advocate in Vaughan, Ont. has dropped her request to have three oak trees removed from a city park because they are dropping acorns onto the property of a nut-free school, saying she has been the misunderstood target of cyber-bullying since the story hit the media earlier this month.
In a letter submitted to city council on Tuesday, Donna Giustizia said she made a deputation before council with the full support of the St. Stephen School administration, but was formally withdrawing her request after her plea was blown out of proportion and she was made to appear as an overzealous parent acting alone rather than as chair of her school’s allergy awareness committee doing what was asked of her.
“It is most unfortunate that the media, in reporting the story, chose to sensationalize the news, and has carelessly and cavalierly hurt those who we were trying to protect,” she wrote to council. “On a personal level, the cyber bullying and hate-filled sentiments my family and I have had to endure — because of my simply acting in a voluntary capacity, making a friendly request before my City Council on behalf of small children — is ridiculous.”
Ms. Giustizia, whose Grade 8 daughter has an anaphylactic allergy to tree nuts and attends St. Stephen, was first alerted to the nut-shedding oak trees by school administration back in October. Then, again with the support of the school, she said, she made the deputation before Vaughan council on Nov. 6th, saying the trees pose a threat to the younger St. Stephen students who play nearby. Children with anaphylactic allergies — an “invisible disability” — she said, have a right to be protected and accommodated under the Ontario Human Rights Code.
“As I pointed out in my deputation, there are students in our school who have specific recommendations and/or letters stating that these students are not to come into contact with tree nuts of any kind,” she wrote. “I would think that the recommendation of a child’s attending physician…would have satisfied the City to act on the side of caution.”
She told the National Post there are at least 40 students at the school of over 860 with anaphylactic allergies — many of them to tree nuts. Allergists widely agree that a person with a nut allergy may have a reaction if they ate the meat of the bitter acorn, but rarely does anyone attempt to do so.
In an email, Ward 4 councillor Sandra Yeung Racco said it was “shame that this well-intentioned request came to this point.”
“However, as Council members, I do believe that we have a duty to make decisions based on scientific fact and supporting arguments, and we have to be careful that all decisions we do make are for the best interest of the community at large and do not set unnecessary precedents,” she said.
Ms. Giustizia maintains that the school asked her to go to the city about the trees, but the school says it was Ms. Giustizia’s prerogative, said May Moore, spokesperson for York Catholic District School Board.
In an email provided to the Post, the vice-principal of St. Stephen thanked Ms. Giustizia for making the deputation.
She also said the school instructed her to withdraw the request, but the school board says the school merely supported her decision.
“They had a conversation with her to try to talk about next steps forward and continuing the good work that’s already been done and she advised she was considering dropping it,” Ms. Moore said.
A city staff report on the issue was slated to come before the committee of the whole next Tuesday at 1 p.m.
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My elementary school had dozens of chestnut (not the edible kind) trees around. It was tradition to collect them. Either off the ground, or by hucking rocks to knock them out of the tree. Kids with allergies will know to stay away from nuts. It would have been bedlam, if those trees were cut down!. |
