Parents and teachers rallied outside local MPP Caroline Mulroney’s office on Wednesday afternoon as part of a peaceful, province-wide three-day awareness demonstration to voice concerns about safety for students and staff related to returning to school in September amid the pandemic.
The rally was organized by members of the Ontario Parent Action Network and Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation (OSSTF) after Premier Doug Ford’s recent proposal of $29 million “COVID-funding” for Ontario schools.
The proposal includes $15 million for technology, $10 million for mental health, and an additional $4 million for extra caretakers needed to keep the schools properly cleaned and sterilized.
However, divided among the number of Ontario students, the funding works out to be seven cents a day per student.
Since Monday, supporters of the rally were encouraged to “break Doug Ford’s inbox” with emails and phone calls, letting him know that kids and educational workers were worth more than seven cents a day, as well as tweeting the hashtag #SafeSeptember as part of a “twitter storm”.
On Wednesday, activists participated in a “Decorate Your MPP’s Office Window” campaign where students, parents and teachers met at each local MPP’s offices in their regions to decorate the office windows with posters letting them know what they expect for a safe September.
“If you take a look at the funding for health and safety, everybody makes it a priority,” states Colin Wackett, a member of the York Region Health and Safety Board with the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario (ETFO) who was present at the rally in front of Mulroney’s office on Wednesday.
“Until we know how many staff are going back, what PPE needs to be provided and for how many people, it’s very difficult to calculate a cost," said Wackett. '(The government) has committed there will be funding for the schools, but the emphasis on safety for the students, safety for the teachers, that’s what we’re here for today, it’s a rally to say the elementary teachers stand behind the parent group that’s putting this on”.
Concerned parents and teachers Catherine and Andrew Foster also attended the rally in front of Mulroney’s office with their daughter Lia (age 7) who is auto-immune compromised with Type 1 Diabetes and must wear an insulin pack around her waist.
“I’m very concerned about the lack of funding allocated to keep students safe… it’s almost like this is a test, a test we’re not willing to put our kids and teachers in danger for,” said Catherine, who is also a teacher at Holland Landing Public School. “We do everything we can to keep her safe [and] we’re doing the same for our students.”
Blair Vowles, a special education teacher at Keswick High School, added that “the funding coming from the government to support special educational programs and most importantly the special education students is lacking. These students are high risk and seven cents [a day] is just not enough!”
Teachers at the rally all agreed that class sizes were an even bigger issue now that social distancing is mandatory, and that many of the schools are “just not built for this.”
Proper airflow was another topic discussed among the teachers, noting that a majority of the schools do not have air conditioning and wearing a mask all day would cause a number of escalated health problems.
“I work in a concrete block with no windows,” said Julie Sayles, a secondary teacher at Huron Heights. “I have to bring in air from the hallway to get any sort of ventilation… with 34 kids in there, it’s a recipe for disaster!”
Dennis Stan, who is also a teacher at Huron Heights Secondary School and has two young children in JK and SK, one of whom suffers from acute asthma, states that children in kindergarten will not be able to socially distance when they are sitting at the same tables and sharing everything; let alone wear a mask.
“The school board is not communicating with staff on how they will be implementing health and safety,” said Stan who is also the department head for eight other staff members at his school.
“One of our staff is also auto-immune compromised and although she wants to come back to work, she has serious concerns about going back – if that teacher gets sick, who’s going to replace her?" asked Stan. "What supply teacher is going to come in and cover that class? Do they have to provide material when they’re under quarantine for two weeks? Who’s developing the lesson plans? None of these questions have been answered and we only have one month left!”
Stan and the other teachers at the rally asserted that they are smart people who can make it work, but that they need to know a plan first.
“We know it’s not going to be perfect – it’s a pandemic - but give us something we can work with.”
Ford is expected to make an announcement today on how school boards will proceed in September.
