My kids’ primary school had a busy bee during the school holidays so parent volunteers could get in and tidy up the large unruly gardens around the grounds of our school. We had a great turn out of about 15 parents and soon got into the work of stripping out the dead plants and making everything look neat and tidy again.
Just before morning tea time, one of the parents announced she’d brought in cakes and fruit for everyone to share.
As the school was locked for the holidays, the only room we had access to was the gardener’s shed. Thankfully the gardener kept tea, coffee and sugar in his shed and another parent had thought to bring a flask of milk, so we were able to stop for hot drinks with our snack.
As everyone was busy, I volunteered to make the drinks and made my way to the gardener’s shed which was out on the other side of the school.
I noticed when I was in the shed that the gardener kept the tea and coffee containers on the same shelf as the pesticides, but it seemed okay as the supplies were in sealed tins.
I made the drinks up and had them on a tray, carrying them across the school grounds, when I realised I hadn’t stirred the sugar into the drinks.
After morning tea, a few people were starting to complain they felt sick. We put it down to the summer heat and started work on the gardens on the other side of the school.
As we got to the bank of trees where I had snapped the twig off the branch to stir the coffees, one of the parents mentioned that the trees were highly poisonous Oleanders and that we needed to wear gloves before pruning the branches as they contained a highly toxic sap.
It was only at this stage, that I started to think that stirring the drinks with a fresh Oleander twig may have been a mistake, but I was sure that the few drops of sap that had gone in the cups wouldn’t have been enough to make anyone sick….
A few hours later, about half the parents were complaining of stomach pains and were feeling sick. It got so bad we had to cancel the busy bee and all went home.
I found out a few days later that nearly all the volunteers had got bad stomach cramps (myself included) and one parent had ended up in hospital, but was now doing okay.
I didn’t know how to confess what I’d done. I didn’t know Oleanders were poisonous and would never have harmed anyone on purpose. In fact, I’d made myself quite sick as well.
When the parents got together again at the start of school this year, they all discussed what could have made them so unwell. It was decided in the end that it was either the cakes and fruit that had sat all morning in the hot car or somehow the gardener’s drink supplies had become contaminated with the pesticides he kept in there.
I’m thankful that everyone recovered with no real ill effects, but I still feel really bad that the parent and the gardener got the blame.
The mother kept apologising to everyone about her food and the gardener has now been banned from keeping any food products in his shed. They’re both so sorry to have caused everyone to be so sick, when I still think the finger should probably be pointed at me.
I think this year I’ll stick to what I know and only put my hand up for classroom volunteer work instead.
Picture: Getty Images. Posed by model.
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