Kate Doyle feels frustrated by the general back-and-forth by those involved in the conversation around masking in schools.
She has one nine-year-old daughter who recently contracted COVID-19 and has since recovered, but says there doesn’t seem to be a sense of leadership in the province.
“It’s been incredibly frustrating to watch,” she said in an interview on Tuesday.
It comes after a letter was sent to the province by 19 pediatricians and neonatologists asking the province to reinstate masks in schools.
But the back-and-forth didn’t start there. In previous interviews, both Dr. Jennifer Russell and Health Minister Dorothy Shephard have said that individual institutions and departments can implement policies as they see fit.
Education Minister Dominic Cardy has been consistent in saying he doesn’t have that authority.
“They’re the experts. They need to figure out the messaging and communicate recommendations to politicians,” Cardy said on Monday. “And I’m waiting for recommendations from Public Health if they’re going to bring any new ones because they haven’t and we haven’t heard from them in some time.”
For Doyle, that kind of pointing fingers isn’t helping parents feel secure about sending their kids to school.
“When one person is saying, ‘Oh, I can’t do this because it’s their job,’ and the other person is saying, ‘Actually, you can do this’ … it absolutely feels like they are playing politics,” Doyle said.
In her daughter’s case, there are only about four kids in her class who routinely wear masks.
“She is one of the only kids in her grade that does so,” she said. “I think we’re speaking on behalf of kids when we say, ‘Oh, their mental health is suffering.’ … There is no proof that wearing masks has a negative or adverse impact on a child’s mental health.”
Doyle said it is important for the kids to be in school, especially for optimal learning and social interaction, but believes there should be protections in place.
“So the message being sent to little kids is, ‘Hey, we don’t think we need to do this to protect you,’ and what kind of message is that?”
For Doyle, Public Health and the Department of Health need to get on the same page.
“Take this seriously and listen to the parents who are scared.”
She isn’t alone.
Chelsea Stevens has an auto-immune disorder and two kids in the school system. She also takes care of her elderly father.
Both her children were home from school and are symptomatic but testing negative.
“It took me a really long time to come to the decision to send them to school in the first place,” she said, speaking of the return to school following March break.
Stevens said she is constantly keeping herself informed about how things are going elsewhere and what to watch out for but said schools feel unsafe.
“I still don’t feel good about it,” she said.
She sends her children to school with N95 masks and mini air purifiers.
“It’s like we’re being told that our vulnerabilities don’t matter,” she said in an interview on Tuesday.
Stevens said this is about more than just bending to pressure from external sources.
“All in all, it doesn’t matter, it’s your job, do it,” she said. “You know, we’ve got COVID just absolutely burning through schools.”
‘Nobody wants to take ownership’
Little is known about the number of cases in schools. In March, when the restrictions were lifted, so too was the requirement to report positive cases. The department no longer publishes the number of cases in schools or how many schools are impacted by the virus.
Jennifer MacAloney is a mother of five children, all at different levels of education. She said the whole ordeal has been confusing and stressful for her and the children.
“Because it sounds like they are saying the same thing but nobody wants to take ownership of what they are saying,” she said in an interview by phone.
MacAloney believes that’s a lack of leadership.
“I’m someone who has supported them wholeheartedly so I feel sort of let down in this moment,” she said.
For her children, especially her child in middle school, the peer pressure of not wearing a mask is something she has to contend with.
“It’s not that they like it, I’m not saying they like it, but they have seen the value in doing it and so just do it,” MacAloney said.
She said her faith in both the minister and the chief medical officer of health remains but doesn’t understand what is going on behind the scenes that is getting in the way.
“I just need them to be there, for not just my children, (but) for the community and for my province as a whole,” she said.
Global News reached out to the Department of Health and is awaiting a response.
The Department of Education and Early Childhood Development says it is unable to provide absence rates for schools.
“Regarding staff absenteeism data, we’re currently working on compiling this information and developing processes to share these numbers,” the department said in a statement.
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