Article content continued

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.

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

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.