Between deep freeze and the deluge of new COVID-19 Omicron variant cases, Mike Brown and his family thought it best to spend the holidays.
There was a sense of relief on December 30 when he heard that his daughter would have a little more time before returning to her Third grade classroom after the Alberta government delayed reopening until January 10.
The relief did not last long. This week, your daughter is back at school.
“I was hoping there would be some kind of change … Why wasn’t it okay for her to come back last week and this week it’s like, in my opinion, nothing has changed?” said Brown, whose daughter attends King George School in Calgary.
“I don’t understand very well, and I’m very anxious for her to be there.”
While parents in other parts of the country have had to navigate online learning, with all the challenges that come with it, British Columbia, Alberta and Saskatchewan have decided to go ahead with reopening. Ontario is the latest addition to that group after announcing Monday night that schools will reopen in the province on January 17.
And while those provinces have what some might consider an enviable situation, those who live and work in provinces where face-to-face classes with teachers, books, and dirty looks have resumed, are not so sure.
And, as elsewhere, the conversation has turned to ventilation and masking issues.
Dr. Bonnie Henry, BC’s chief physician, has struck a note that many can relate to, saying that children should go back to school for their emotional, physical and intellectual well-being and that they are safer in school than at some “unstructured environments”.
But that hasn’t addressed the concerns many have.
Teri Mooring, president of the British Columbia Federation of Teachers, said that while the union supports the restart of the school, the province needs to take better security measures in addition to those that already exist. BC has about 565,000 students in the public school system.
Prioritizing teachers for booster shots is an initiative Mooring said the provincial government should take. Staff shortages could also make things worse, he said.
“We are just not looking at the responsiveness and proactivity of the government that we need to see,” he said. “Unfortunately, this is not new either. This is something we have seen throughout the pandemic. “
She said the province has made no effort to secure N95 masks for staff, students and teachers.
Mooring added that the NDP government has not spent enough money or done everything possible to improve ventilation in schools.
The BC Ministry of Education said it recognizes the seriousness of the situation but is using Henry’s guidance to determine what action to take, adding that it has not recommended the widespread use of N95 masks.
A ministry statement said it has spent $ 115 million to upgrade ventilation systems and is “continually” talking to experts about improvements.
On Friday, BC had 3,114 new COVID-19 cases, but the numbers are likely to be higher as the province’s testing capacity has been affected by the surge from Omicron. About 350 people were hospitalized for COVID as of Friday, with 93 in critical care.
Dr Devon Greyson, from the University of British Columbia’s School of Population and Public Health, said it’s hard to say simply whether children should go back to school or not right now, calling it a complex question that doesn’t have a answer for all environments.
“I think the vast majority of the country is concerned because we don’t know how this increase in omicrons will play out here,” Greyson said. “It is understandable that families with children who are too young to be vaccinated or who have not yet been eligible for both doses of a vaccine are quite concerned at this time for the safety of their children.”
Like Henry, Greyson said that school can be much safer than many other activities that children could participate in outside of school, such as simply congregating. They also said that children tend to do better than older people with COVID infections, but there are still risks.
Vaccination is important to ensure safety, they said, adding that the results for children ages 5 to 11 seem “fantastic” so far.
“In fact, adverse effects have been lower for that age group than for teens,” Greyson said.
In Alberta, Brown expressed concerns similar to Mooring’s as her daughter returned to school.
He’s frustrated that the government didn’t use that week-long delay to ensure that all classrooms were equipped with N95 masks for both teachers and staff and a proper HEPA filter for the classrooms.
Brown’s daughter received one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, but is not eligible for her second dose for about three weeks. Create a window of time that will be filled with anxiety for the family.
“It quickly gets to the point where there is the greatest chance of us getting infected,” Brown said.
Brown would have liked to see another week of virtual learning as the government prepared to reopen.
“I don’t want to say that I am in favor of online learning. For example, it’s hard to do my own work and then help my third grader, but that could have been kind of an in-between approach until they got everything else in order.
But he also acknowledged that there are parents in other parts of the country who are eager to send their children back to school.
“It’s complicated because every family is different,” he said.
Jason Schilling, president of the Alberta Teachers Association, said that despite government assurances that classes will be equipped with rapid tests, medical-grade masks and HEPA filters for classrooms, the materials have not yet reached the schools. schools.
“I have yet to speak to someone who has received any of those materials inside their building,” Schilling said.
“So we had a start to the school day today that didn’t have what I, and the association, would consider the government’s minimal effort for COVID mitigation for teachers, staff and students,” he added.
Alberta recorded 23,879 cases in the past four days, or about 5,969 cases per day. The province also announced that it would only offer PCR testing to people with clinical risk factors for severe results or who work or live in high-risk settings.
At a news conference Monday, Alberta’s chief medical officer for health, Dr. Deena Hinshaw, said there is “no perfect solution” for reopening schools and decided to take a similar approach to that of her western neighbor to balance the impact. of online learning in children’s physical and mental health. while trying to keep cases down in schools.
“Right now, with the back to school at a high transmission time, there will be times when individual schools, individual classes will need to move online for periods of time simply for operational reasons,” Hinshaw said.
“Like colleagues in BC, we have weighed all of those things and determined that we want to offer children the opportunity to return even though we know there will be some operational challenges.”
Reference-www.thestar.com