As the tam tam of parents, pediatricians, psychologists and the Hospital for Sich Children calling on the government to reopen schools ‘immediately’ is growing, Health Minister Elliott has broken her silence by saying that “it is possible that the government may opt for a regional approach.”
Just a few hours earlier, Ontario Chief Medical Officer of Health David Williams said he was in favour of children returning to the classrooms as soon as possible. “Ideally I would like schools to reopen even before we start Phase 1 of our Road Map (on June 14)” said Williams. Some schools, he also suggested, could reopen on May 31.
A few hours earlier, a group of 14 researchers studying the effects of the pandemic on children sounded yet another alarm: “We are at the height of a generational catastrophe,” Tracy Vaillancourt, a professor at the University of Ottawa who is a specialist in children’s mental health, wrote in a letter to Premier Ford urging students who remained at home to return to school in early April.
But while doctors and experts on psychological issues related to childhood and adolescence have long agreed on the need for boys to attend school, Dr. Williams and Premier Ford have so far dumped the responsibility on each other. Both have tried to shirk their responsibilities, pouring them onto each other. “I listen to Dr. Williams’s opinion,” Ford said repeatedly pressed by the question “when schools will reopen?”. “I’ve always argued that schools should be the last to close and the first to open,” said the province’s Chief Medical Officer of Health. It’s a hot potato, this one from the school, that no one wants to take in their hands, the risk is to get burned.
The return of children to school, albeit for a short time, is increasingly supported as the days go by. “Dr Williams is eager to see students back in class, but the case count needs to be low enough to be considered safe because schools reflect what’s going on in the community,” Minister of Health Elliott told CP24. “It is certainly possible that schools could then be reopened in some regions in June while in others they will remain closed – added the minister – the final decision will be made by Williams. I know that Minister Lecce wants to make sure that students return to school safely at the appropriate time.”
But while doctors, Williams and Elliott are talking about the return to the classrooms, at the moment, the Minister of Education Lecce avoids exposing himself and maintains a low profile. And while the school boards – informed by his ministry that the distance learning option will also remain in place next year – begin to prepare for September, after pressure from doctors the government is considering a possible reopening one month before the end of the school year. “Our professional view is that these interruptions have negatively affected all aspects of the child’s development, which extend far beyond learning,” the specialists cautioned.
However, the unknown teachers remain. Teachers’ unions said last week that they support the reopening of schools as long as the province takes their concerns into account and pledges to make them safer. And to make that happen, they say, you need smaller classes, testing, and better contact tracking. Demands have already been made for more than a year, but the government has so far been deaf.
