Nut-allergic child's mom demands oak trees be removed from schoolyard

[Rhubarbodendron]

it's a shame that she got bullied. There are other and more effective ways of communication.
In my opinion she should first have tried to find out whether persons with a nut allergy react to acorns at all. (As a biologist I doubt that very much - too many differences in the respective chemistry).
Secondly, it is not always a good idea to protect allergic persons from allergenes. It has proved to be better for them to get exposed and gradually immunized.
Thirdly, if you cut down all plants someone might be allergic to, you'll be left with a desert.
Forthly, certain plants are known to cause more allergies than others. Yet it'd be a bad idea to extinct or remove them. If children get exposed to them from the very start, they usually don't develop any allergies at all and get a far stronger immune system. Ever heard of a farmer with hay fever?

However, oaks are infamous for rotting inwardly without showing a hint on the outside. Thus, they tend to very unexpectedly drop big branches. If the oaks are older than 70 years (in areas with polluted air I'd say older than 55), it would indeed be a good idea to remove them, in order to prevent accidents. Or at least to give them a thorough inspection every year.

[Miss Chicken]

One of my sons is allergic to pine trees. His school actually removed a tree from their ground because it was affecting him so much. However he was attending a special unit at the school and moving to another school wasn't an option.

[Rhubarbodendron]

pine pollen is very light and gets blown away for dozens - sometimes hundreds - of miles. Doesn't that affect him as well or is he just allergic to the plant itself?
Pines grow very quickly - a cut one is easy to replace. They might plant another when you son has finished school.

[Miss Chicken]

He would have a reaction if he touched a pine cone, or if got too close to a pine tree. It is possible that he was actually allergic to some sort of mold than grows on pine trees here rather than to the pollen.

It as the school that determined what the allergic reaction was to. His class was making Christmas ornaments out of pine cones when he had a serious reaction and that explained the less reactions he had been having before that.

[Rhubarbodendron]

The cones contain no pollen. But they are full of resin as are the bark and the needles. He might have reacted to that. You could test that with a tiny drop of resin.
I think in this case it would be worth making a thorough test and if possible try an immunisation as pine wood is often used for building furniture.

[Miss Chicken]

Rhubarbodendron wrote:

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The cones contain no pollen. But they are full of resin as are the bark and the needles. He might have reacted to that. You could test that with a tiny drop of resin.
I think in this case it would be worth making a thorough test and if possible try an immunisation as pine wood is often used for building furniture.

My son started to outgrow most of his allergies in his teens and now (at the age of 32) only has the occasional mild reaction to things that used to cause a severe reaction.

[Deckerd]

Miss Chicken wrote:

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One of my sons is allergic to pine trees. His school actually removed a tree from their ground because it was affecting him so much. However he was attending a special unit at the school and moving to another school wasn't an option.

Removing a tree from within the school grounds is a sensible and safe thing to do. It seems this story was misreported from the start and that the woman was only making a request as spokesperson for the school board. Perhaps the school board should have used another spokesperson and this personal abuse would not have happened. However hindsight is a wonderful thing.