Parents shopping for school supplies Monday were divided over whether masks would be part of their children’s uniforms this fall, as the province confirmed their use would remain voluntary.
In an email to CBC News on Monday, the Ontario Ministry of Education said most health and safety requirements for the upcoming school year will remain unchanged from the end of the 2021-22 school year, including the voluntary use of masks.
The ministry said medical experts were consulted in drawing up this year’s health and safety plan.
Carrie Morrison and her 10-year-old daughter Addison told CBC News that masks will not be required in schools this fall.
“I think I’m fine with the mask mandate going away because I think if people have the choice to do it, I think that’s what’s really important.” I feel like at this point … it’s great to have a choice,” Morrison said.
“I feel like the way [people] we use the masks, it’s questionable whether we’re really getting that much protection,” she added.
“It’s nice that it’s optional because it’s hard to work, it’s hard to breathe,” said Addison, who is going into 5th grade. “So I like that it’s optional, but if you want, you can wear one.”
Pandemic Accelerator Schools
However, Dr. Raywat Deonandan, an epidemiologist and associate professor at the University of Ottawa, said that while there may come a time when masks will no longer be necessary, that’s not the case this fall.
“We are in the midst of a health care crisis in Ontario and across the country [intesive care units] which are overtaxed. We have healthcare workers who are overstretched and dropping like flies. We have a shortage of nurses. We have emergency rooms that close regularly,” he said.
Deonandan said schools could become a vehicle for the virus to spread again.
“Children, if they get sick, they will pass it on to other people because, as we have seen, schools are really an accelerator of the pandemic. There’s no arguing about that anymore.
“At the start of the pandemic, there was an assumption that children magically didn’t get sick. Not true.”
Sarah Jane Itabrooks will ask her son Judah, 11, to wear a mask when he returns to school. (Brian Morris/CBC)
This is not lost on Sarah Jane Itabrooks, a mother of two.
“I think the masks will be back again before Thanksgiving. I would rather they stay,” Itabrooks said
She said she plans to ask her children, including her 11-year-old son Judah, to dress up at school.
“Masks are inconvenient, but I think they are necessary. I don’t want to make my friends sick and I don’t want to get sick,” he said.
School boards to follow provincial guidelines
Three of Ottawa’s four school boards said in emailed statements that they will follow the province’s guidelines when it comes to wearing masks.
Ottawa’s largest school board, the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board (OCDSB), said it will encourage masking and that rapid antigen tests and masks will continue to be provided by the government for those who need them.
But OCDSB Trustee Lira Evans tweeted Monday that she was calling for a board meeting to review the masking decision.
The main hospital that serves my area (Montfort) closed its emergency department over the weekend due to staff shortages exasperated by COVID.
People have been asking me if the school board plans to go back to masking to reduce local transmission.
I will call to make an appointment to move in, which we are doing.
—@LyraEvansOtt
The Ottawa Catholic Schools Board and the Conseil des écoles publiques de l’Est de l’Ontario (CEPEO) also said they plan to comply with the province’s decision. CEPEO added in its statement that students who wish to wear masks are free to do so.
The Conseil des écoles catholiques du Centre-Est did not respond to CBC by deadline.
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