Ron Lassiter, who has been a beekeeper for about a year, lives in Ellington subdivision, which is behind the K-5 school. Earlier this month, Lassiter came home to have lunch with his parents and heard an announcement over the school’s intercom: Student release was being delayed an hour because a swarm of 20,000 bees had gotten in the bushes near the bus-loading area.

“The bus pick-up area was moved to the front of the school so the kids didn’t even have to go [back] there,” said Crystal Roberts, public information officer for the Johnston County schools. “We did not have reports of any students or employees getting stung by the bees.”

A wildlife specialist removed the swarm of bees, but Lassiter said he never had any communication with the school system. Within the week, he took it upon himself to move his three hives from Clayton to an isolated location in Four Oaks. Like school officials, Lassiter did not want children to get stung by bees.

“I never meant to cause a problem for the school or my neighbors or anyone else,” Lassiter said last week. “Most beekeepers are very conscientious, and we try to be considerate of people around us, because not many people are educated about bees. They think they are aggressive, but they’re not.”

Last month, before Lassiter moved the hives, Jimmy Lawrence, an attorney for the Johnston County Board of Education, sent a letter to Clayton Town Manager Steve Biggs. Lawrence said he understood property owners had the right to own beehives, but he felt the town needed to take action if Lassiter’s hives were a threat to West Clayton students and staff.

“I feel that when the proximity of such an activity would affect the safety and well-being of students and employees, as well as the orderly operation of the school, there would be some action that the town could take to alleviate the problem,” Lawrence stated in the letter. “If there is no action taken, all it would take would be for one child to be stung and go into anaphylactic shock and problems would arise.”

Lawrence was seeking the town’s help in the matter, but since the bees are gone, the town no longer needs to get involved. Currently, the town has no ordinance regulating beekeeping. At their meeting last week, Town Council members thought it wise to see if the town could regulate beekeeping.

“I don’t think we are trying to tell people they can’t be beekeepers,” said Mayor Jody McLeod. “We need to look at how beekeeping is regulated.”