A Burton, N.B. woman has launched an online petition calling for the provincial government to close schools in health regions that are in the red phase of COVID-19 recovery.
Theresa Jarvis has a daughter in middle school and her husband is a military veteran with health complications.
She said she started the petition Monday, less than 24 hours after Education and Early Childhood Development Minister Dominic Cardy announced schools would stay open, with increased restrictions, during the red phase.
This represented a change to New Brunswick’s Return to School plan unveiled in September.
The petition applauds the work of Cardy and Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Jennifer Russell for their handling of the pandemic.
It also urged the government to reconsider its change in school protocol.
“We need to close schools when we go to Red Zone,” the petition reads. “The teachers have already prepared to do this before school even started.”
Jarvis says parents need to let their feelings be known to government.
“I see us taking a big step back and I just wanted to try and put in my voice to say something as a parent in New Brunswick,” Jarvis told Global News. “And that is that parents do not want their children to go to school when it’s red. They do not want them there. They want them home where they’re safe.”
“This is a slap in the face to tell us our children will be sent to school in red phase,” wrote Stephanie Jones of Moncton.
“Distance learning!!!!!” added Jeff Stewart of Moncton. “We spent money to get prepared for distance learning and then you change the plan? Unreal. It’s been a year to get your act together.”
Maurice McGraw of Grand-Barachois, N.B., said he signed the petition right away.
He and his spouse had already pulled their ten-year-old son from school, ahead of Tuesday’s announcement that the Moncton health region would go red, because of what he believes is confusion around the change in policy.
“I decided that it was time for him, for my son, to stay home for now,” McGraw told Global News. “So we hope to have collaboration with the school to be able to exchange information and to continue his learning.”
McGraw said teachers were caught off-guard so more consultation was necessary between government and educators before any changes were made.
Closing schools will prevent longer-lasting outbreaks ongoing in other provinces, Jarvis said.
“We don’t have to be an Ontario, a Quebec, an Alberta,” Jarvis said. “We don’t have to go through this. We don’t have to box up and panic and scramble and have curfews where people have to be in at night. We can just stop it before it starts rolling. It’s so easy to do that, but to do that we need to have our schools closed if you go red.”
Cardy apologized to teachers on Twitter Tuesday for what he called a “last-minute change to the rules.” He said he has also done so in writing to teachers unions in the province.
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