More than 6,500 people have signed an online petition demanding Manitoba’s government revamp its back-to-school plans to include remote learning and mandatory masks, among other measures they say will protect kids, teachers and families.
The province released its back-to-school plan Thursday, and the petition — written by a collective of parents, teachers and community members called Safe September MB — launched later that day.
The group says it has eight demands for the education minister and provincial government at large: reduced class sizes to allow for two metres of physical distancing; mandatory masks for all staff and students with appropriate medical exemptions; the reinstatement of a 14-day isolation period for non-essential interprovincial travellers; the assessment of school ventilation systems; funded remote learning for all students in Manitoba; paid sick leave for all school division employees; additional teacher and educational assistant hires to backstop teachers on leave; and remote work opportunities for school employees.
The province has said only students who are immunocompromised will have access to remote learning this school year, while no additional funding has been allocated to the back-to-school plan.
Masks will not be mandatory, but chief provincial public health officer Dr. Brent Roussin has “strongly recommended” their use.
A math and science teacher and mother of two who helped organize the petition, Lauren Hope, said the province’s current plan is outrageous.
“When Dr. Roussin was telling us all the fundamentals we need to follow, including physical distancing of at least two metres, avoid indoor places — leave if you have to, wear a mask — when they had just come out with a school plan that really didn’t address any of those issues… I found myself quite confused and upset and angry about that — that what he was recommending for Manitobans didn’t count for my kids or for me or for my colleagues,” she said.
“(Premier Brian) Pallister has given no money to this plan and a lot of it is just a suggestion saying, ‘where possible’, and we’re calling for more.”
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