Our City By Nicole Thompson 483 Views

Some parents raise concerns over plan to reopen schools in Ontario’s COVID-19 hot spots

Ontario’s plan to reopen schools in COVID-19 hot spots has raised concerns among parents who say the government has failed to implement safety measures just as contagious new variants of the novel coronavirus are taking hold.

The announcement, long-awaited by many parents who have been stretched thin during a month-long period of remote learning, has raised questions about just how safe it will be when in-person classes resume in COVID-19 hot spots over the next two weeks.

“I feel that I am against the wall and I have to decide between sending my kids to school and keeping my family safe,” said Fernanda Yanchapaxi, a Toronto mother of two.

“I’m not saying that I don’t want them to be back. I’m dying for them to go back to school. I just want them to be safe.”

She said she wants teachers to be mandated to wear higher-grade personal protective equipment, and for the government to impose smaller class sizes in elementary schools.

All of these, she noted, are measures teachers and advocates have been calling for since September.

As it stands, teachers and students in grades 1 to 12 are required to wear non-medical face masks inside and when physical distancing isn’t possible outdoors.

Some parents said they’d like to see teachers required to wear medical-grade masks, which scientists say seem to be more effective against variants of COVID-19 first discovered in the U.K. and South Africa.

Class sizes have been reduced in high schools since September, and many elementary classes have also shrunk, though without the hard cap of 15 students that advocates have called for.

Some parents say the emergence of contagious new variants of the coronavirus makes these issues even more pressing as the government plans to reopen schools in hot spots in the immediate future — on Feb. 16 in Toronto, Peel and York’s public health units, and Feb. 8 in all other remaining public health units.

That’s particularly true in the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit, where 91 people are confirmed to have a variant of the virus first discovered in the U.K.



Comments

There are 0 comments on this post

Leave A Comment