Schools are not public places?
Thank you for the article in the November 25th Record: Mask Up!
I am curious to know what parents and the community in general think about the comment from Dr. Bonnie Henry saying that “schools are not public open spaces.” Neither are our homes, yet we are now under orders to remain within the core bubble of our immediate household members only. No outside gatherings, no backyard gatherings, no playdates for children.
If there are such strict rules to the number of people who can gather in one closed private space (our homes), then why are there no restrictions for schools in which hundreds of people gather in closed spaces.
Schools are public spaces. The same people may come and go everyday but these people interact with thousands of others and the potential of bringing the COVID-19 virus into the schools goes up exponentially, depending on how many bubbles intersect.
The concept of a known population in one place is also true of many business offices that don’t deal with the public yet they are expected to wear masks, physically distance and have fewer faces in their spaces.
I appreciate the fact that the senior management of our school district has worked hard to put strict protocols in place to protect children and workers but they can only do so much within the framework of the orders from the Ministries of Health and Education.
We need the same rules applied to schools as to other workplaces: fewer faces in indoor spaces and masks for all ages when there is not the ability to physically distance.
Do parents believe it is safe to have 30 students in a classroom? How long do we have to wait until the numbers escalate as they have done in the Fraser Health region?
We need to let our leaders know how we feel. I for one, as a mother of teachers and grandmother of students, have written letters of concern. Maybe there are other mothers and grandmothers out there who could make themselves heard as well.
Karen Langenmaier,
Courtenay