I really feel for all educators this year. They're getting hit from all sides. Ford and Lecce are numbskulls; who knows what the unions are doing with the contracts as they promote arbitration, and there's been lots of in-fighting online over what actually should be a teacher's responsibility in the classroom when it comes to protecting kids from Covid. To some extent, teachers must feel abandoned by the government and unions, and, at some level, they must know that their workplace is higher risk than most for the spread of Covid.
As a trustee, I advised that we should all (board, admin, and educators) encourage masks in class. That provoked some signage in the schools, and that's about the best I could get from my seat at the table. As just a random citizen now, I'm still getting frantic calls from parents about to send their kids to school without any precautions in place, and I still advocate that teachers encourage masks even just by wearing one. Now that masks are becoming increasingly rare, it makes it so much easier for kids to keep theirs on if at least their teacher has a mask on. I know of some teachers who ask students to remove masks, and heard similar stories from parents in the region, and that makes things even harder for parents who hope their kids can keep them on for the whole day. In parts of the US, masks are seen as a trend that must be stopped, and students need a medical note to be allowed to wear one!
So that's where we're at this as we start this school year.
Many people commented on his post that it's missing masks. The easiest way to clean the air before it hits your lungs is with something filtering it directly in front of your face, and it's the only thing most of us have any real control over.
And a few teachers commented things like this,
"I have no control over anything other than windows. Please don't do this to teachers; we're stressed enough already getting everything else organized."
I did both:
"The one thing teachers can do is encourage masks, which is missing. They can check air movement, but might not be able to get it fixed. They can monitor CO2, but might get in trouble for an open window, even a crack. [I know I did! And many classrooms don't even have windows.] They can't control temperature or get a HEPA unit or bring in a CR box."
He blocked me.
Many teachers understand how disabling this virus can be, and they wear a mask to protect themselves and others and to be a good role model for students. Others openly make fun of people who still mask all over social media. It's a crap shoot which one your child will be with for the next ten months, and that kind of lottery is not what anyone signed up for. As Rocket 57 said on Twitter,
"Look, masks work. Three years of school during the pandemic with two kids wearing respirators and (knock on wood) we've been fortunate. But it still feels like handing a kid a fire extinguisher and sending them into a building that's blazing with a four-alarm fire."
And a commenter added,
"Let's not forget the part where everyone in the building claims there is no fire. Our kids have to deal with that in school every single day."
The teachers have enough on their plates as it is. How safe the school is has to be on administrators. A parent recently pointed out that the local board is actually removing HEPA units as they install better ventilation in schools. They explained last June (from between 31 and 47 minutes) that HEPA units are in kindergartens, ACE classrooms, and portables, which is over and above Ministry standards and ASHRAE 62.1 standards (which indicates minimum ventilation rates "that's acceptable to human occupants") as well as in rooms without mechanical ventilation. As mechanical ventilation is added to remaining classrooms, those HEPAs will be removed. The Senior Manager explained that they put them in ACE rooms because the students didn't mask well!
"We've chosen to actually put them in ACE classrooms because that's the right thing to do. Sometimes when the masking was in effect, they wouldn't be keeping masks on, and so on, and then we also put them in portable classrooms where we didn't really need to because of the ventilation we have in there, and it wasn't a Ministry requirement. So if these aren't being plugged in in those spaces like I would expect, we need to get on that because we would support that. . . . The custodians maybe could play a part as well making sure that they're plugged in in the mornings. . . . It's not every room that you'd want them running; it's those rooms required by the Ministry. . . . When a classroom has mechanical ventilation on its own, then it's providing the adequate ventilation for that space."
Except it's not in the custodian's job description to do that. At least, that's what I was told when I asked about custodians ensuring units are plugged in over a year ago, or did something change. It's still an issue. And are we absolutely sure mechanical ventilation alone is adequate?
The Director further clarified:
"People assume that because there's a HEPA filter unit that is present that it's meant to be used."
In other words, if a HEPA is unplugged in a typical classroom, then it's quite possibly surplus.
This appears to miss the whole layered bit necessary to protect children from getting Covid: using ventilation AND filtration (and masks and vaccinations) in the classroom is required to ensure the safest start for all our little ones. I get that they're following the rules and then some, but when the minimal standards aren't nearly enough, then going just a little above them still doesn't cut it. Even the CDC (May 2023) recommends good ventilation, plus portable air cleaners, plus UVGI. Air purifiers in the room can catch any viruses circulating before they get sucked into the return air by the HVAC system.
A year ago, Joe Vipond and Amanda Hu clarified what was needed to make schools safer:
"Adequate ventilation, with a minimum of six fresh air changes per hour . . . monitored through measuring the CO2 concentration in the room. . . . filtration units like HEPA filters, or even homemade Corsei-Rosenthal boxes, to remove and trap virus particles. . . . And we need to reinstate universal masking . . . emphasizing respirator-style (N95 or KN95) masks for everyone. . . . Making schools safer is fully within our reach."
I'd support the removal of filtration it the ventilation is so amazing that CO2 never gets over 500 ppm in any classroom full of kids. But my room used to regularly hit 2,000 by the afternoon even with mechanical ventilation. By contrast, check out TDSB's newsletter:
I want all kids, and educators, to be movie-star safe this year--everyone in masked except when performing, daily testing, and air purifiers--but I have no idea how to convince those in power that the children matter as much as movie stars. Maybe the kids all need t-shirts that say,
"I might be a famous film star one day. Please mask in my presence just in case!"
Biomedical researcher Mark Ungrin is advocating more of a take-no-prisoners approach:
"In a few weeks, kids who are healthy today will come home from school with a serious, preventable disease and pass it on to their families. Some of them will never recover.
There is no excuse for inaction. We know this will happen. While the evidence continues to accumulate, this is not new. Schools have had years to prepare.
Document the steps your family has taken to protect yourselves in preparation for legal action against the school boards and individuals responsible. When they harm your family, document those harms and contact a lawyer. Reach out to other families to explore class actions. If you are in Canada, consider filing a complaint with the police for violation of the Westray Law: it's federal criminal code, so there are very few exemptions.
School boards and their leaders (along with hospitals and other large organizations) rely on the mistaken belief that they are not accountable unless you can prove 100% where the Covid was acquired. This is not true. There's a good summary on that here: "Proof on Balance of Probabilities."Kids, their families, and their teachers do not need to be put at risk this way. There are simple, reasonable steps that those who direct the work of others can easily take to protect employees and the public. Ventilation is one. Masking is another. If you're a school board trustee who expects politicians to overturn mask mandates, bring one in anyway. Make them put it in writing. Get it on the record that you did what you could.
Otherwise, it's on you.
Do you really trust them to have your back then?
Parents - even if you're not sure, try sending your kids in with an N95 for the first few weeks at least. Let someone else's family be the guinea pigs for Public Health's latest big, unethical, pseudoscientific experiment on children. Finally, let trustees know. Negligent, even malicious misinformation from various sources won't excuse them from their responsibility to take reasonable steps to protect those under their authority. "Just following orders" is not enough.
They'll act if they know they will pay."
He misses the bit that if boards break the rules (by invoking a mask policy for instance) they can be taken over by the provincial government like happened in Peel. At this point, though, I think it might be worth it to make that big of a statement. I also think it unlikely to get enough support by trustees in my region. It takes six trustees in agreement to get a motion through.
If you're still unsure about masks, here's a great video explaining which masks might be best. Go for at least an N95 or KN94. Fit really matters, so aim for the very best fit possible. And don't take them off inside a public building, even if you're currently alone in the room, ever.
And here's a quick and dirty graphic of my own from a free template at Canva:
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