Parents and teachers concerned about Quebec’s plan to reopen schools

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While understanding the importance of in-person learning for children, parents and teachers expressed concern Wednesday about Quebec’s plan to reopen schools in two weeks.

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Despite the continued increase in COVID-19 cases, Quebec Education Minister Jean-François Roberge announced Wednesday that the province still intends for students to return to school on January 17.

But for some, reopening schools to students without additional measures, such as improved ventilation or the N95 masks requested by teachers, is too risky a move and could backfire.

“The stakes are too high due to the large number of people in schools and the fact that we don’t have adequate protection,” said Lev Berner, a science professor at Vincent Massey Collegiate in Rosemont. “If you have a high school student with Omicron in a class, it’s highly unlikely that he won’t turn out to be something important.”

On Wednesday, Roberge said the province will prepare for the reopening by distributing 3.6 million rapid tests to elementary schools and adding 50,000 more carbon dioxide detectors in classrooms. Teachers and other school personnel will also be added to the priority groups that are eligible for PCR testing on January 15, as will daycare staff.

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But both Roberge and public health director Horacio Arruda said Quebec experts do not recommend that teachers wear N95 masks or equip classrooms with air purifiers.

When asked why he thinks it will be safe to send students back to school in two weeks, Roberge said that being safe “does not mean that no one has the flu or COVID-19. It means that we are doing everything we can and following the recommendations of our experts. “

Sylvain Martel, from the Regroupement des comités de parents autonomes du Québec, said that many of the group’s members were surprised by the announcement and hoped the return to school would be postponed.

Martel noted that when Quebec announced it was closing schools in December, the province was recording roughly 3,000 COVID-19 cases per day. As of Wednesday, it averaged more than 15,000 new cases per day.

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And while vaccination rates are high across Quebec, they remain lowest among young children who have only been eligible for the vaccine since November. About 57 percent of children ages five to eleven have received a dose of the vaccine.

Martel told him that the reopening of schools feels strangely out of sync with the current situation in Quebec. And, he added, the few measures announced for Wednesday’s reopening did little to reassure concerned parents.

“There seems to be a difference between what happens in other parts of society and what happens in the education sector,” Martel said, pointing to the curfew and other restrictions in place. “We believe that children belong to schools, but only when it is possible to do so safely.”

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For Dr. Earl Rubin, director of the division of pediatric infectious diseases at Montreal Children’s Hospital, the decision comes down to striking a balance, given how crucial in-person learning is for young children.

It also highlights how important it is that parents, grandparents and others who are around children get properly vaccinated, he said.

“If we can protect those who would need to be hospitalized so that the hospital system does not collapse,” said Rubin, “then you have to take into account the risk-benefit balance.”

On the positive side, Rubin said that the Omicron variant does not appear to be causing serious illness at this time, especially among children.

And, with the in-person return delayed to Jan.17, if people abide by the restrictions in place, Rubin said that hopefully children who contracted the virus over the holidays will not bring it back to the classroom with them.

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But given the variant’s transmissibility, the virus is likely to “spread easily” once it becomes a class.

“So we need to focus on protecting people who are truly vulnerable,” Rubin said, “and do what we can to try to prevent it from entering and spreading.”

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