Since early April, students across Ontario have not attended class in person. And even though there are only a few weeks left on the academic calendar, there’s a push to resume in-person classes.
“I’ve heard from so many children and youth, workers and counsellors about the number of families and young people that are struggling,” Mayor Bryan Paterson said.
Paterson isn’t alone, as the Kingston Board of Health voted to support a plea from local infectious disease specialists who are also calling for a return to in-class learning on a regional basis.
“This letter is to give a voice to a regional community,” Dr. Kirk Leifso, a Kingston pediatrician and infectious disease specialist, said in an interview with Global News. “Ontario is not homogenous, and risk is not evenly distributed amongst the province.”
But not everyone is on board with sending students back to school so soon. The union representing secondary school teachers isn’t sure it’s such a good idea.
“I think our members are really worried about getting and spreading COVID,” teachers bargaining unit president for OSSTF District 27 Andrea Loken said. “I don’t think that we’ve had a good reassurance from public health.”
Premier Doug Ford is also hoping to take a cautious approach. On Thursday he sent a letter to medical and educational stakeholders asking for their input on a number of questions surrounding a return to in-class learning in hopes of reaching a consensus.
“Ontario is not an island,” the letter read. “Keeping our students and school staff, and their families, safe in a global pandemic must include global considerations, especially the impact of new, more dangerous variants that have now entered our communities through Canada’s borders.”
By Monday there will be only a few weeks left on the academic calendar, so even if a return to class does come, it will be brief.